Connecticut workers receiving minimum wage will get a pay increase on New Year’s Day as the state’s minimum wage is slated to grow about 60 cents, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Wednesday.
After Connecticut Senate Democrats led the state’s 2019 effort to impose an increase to the minimum wage, which spurred a five-year increase from $10.10 in 2019 to $15 in 2023, the wage has continued to grow. Under the 2019 law, the minimum wage will be adjusted annually based on the federal employment cost index of the previous year.
As that rate rose by 3.6% from 2024 to 2025, the minimum wage will increase by 3.6% next year, growing from $16.35 to $16.94.
“For too long, as the nation’s economy grew the income of the lowest earning workers has stayed flat, making already existing pay disparities even worse and preventing hardworking families from obtaining financial security,” said Lamont in announcing the increase. “This is a fair, modest increase, and the money earned will go right back into our own economy, supporting local businesses in our communities.”
Connecticut’s foresight in increasing its minimum wage has caused it to have one of the highest minimum wages in the United States, not counting city, region or industry-based limits in other regions. Bloomberg Law reported that, as of this year, Connecticut had the third-highest minimum wage in the country, behind only Washington state and the District of Columbia. Connecticut’s minimum wage will be four cents higher than California’s in 2026, save for fast food workers in the Golden State.
Connecticut is one of a growing number of states imposing increased minimum wages, a shift that is marked by the last federal minimum wage increase coming in 2007. In that year, the federal government increased the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over three years.
A significant number of studies on the minimum wage, including ones by the Center for American Progress and the University of Michigan, have found that if the minimum wage increased to $15 nationally, as many as 40 million workers, or one in four in the country, would see a pay increase. Some would see wage increases as high as $8,000 per year, and doing so would reduce gender, racial and ethnic wage gaps.
The benefits are as strong for employers as they are for employees, increasing worker retention while reducing hiring needs in most industries, the University of Michigan study found.
