Connecticut Minimum Wage and Wage Orders
Connecticut revised its minimum wage posting and five industry-specific wage orders to reflect increases in its minimum wage rate increases that took effect January 1, 2014.
The revisions are considered mandatory, and employers in the affected industries must display the most current version of the wage order appropriate to their business classification.
The minimum wage posting (aka the Administration Regulations Poster) and other postings required for Connecticut employers are available as part of GovDocs Connecticut labor law poster packages in print and electronic formats.
What is the Connecticut Minimum Wage?
Connecticut was the first state in the U.S. to schedule a minimum wage increase to $10.10 per hour. The increase will occur in stages by 2017. For workers not covered by industry-specific wage orders, the standard Connecticut minimum wage rate schedule is:
- January 1, 2014: $8.70
- January 1, 2015: $9.15
- January 1, 2016: $9.60
- January 1, 2016: $10.10
What is a Connecticut Wage Order?
Along with California and New York, Connecticut is one of three states that requires employers in certain industries to post industry-specific wage orders that define and regulate:
- Minimum fair wage rates
- Calculation of payment
- Overtime rates
- Uniform, housing, and transportation allowances
- Record-keeping requirements for employers
Connecticut established five separate wage orders covering restaurants, dry cleaners, laundry, beauty shop and mercantile businesses who must display the wage order specific to their industry for employees. Each wage order establishes a sub-minimum wage specific to those industries.
Connecticut Wage Order for Restaurant and Hotel Restaurant Occupations
Mandatory Order Number 8 details the minimum fair wage requirements for restaurant employees who are:
“engaged in the preparation and serving of food for human consumption, or in any operation incidental or supplemental thereto irrespective of whether the food is served at or away from the point of preparation, and irrespective of whether the preparation and serving of food is the sole business of the employing establishment.”
Tipped table service workers (waitstaff) earn:
- January 1, 2014: $5.69 per hour plus gratuities
- January 1, 2015: $5.78 per hour plus gratuities
- January 1, 2016: $6.07 per hour plus gratuities
- January 1, 2016: $6.38 per hour plus gratuities
Bartenders earn:
- January 1, 2014: $7.34 per hour plus gratuities
- January 1, 2015: $7.46 per hour plus gratuities
- January 1, 2016: $7.82 per hour plus gratuities
- January 1, 2016: $8.23 per hour plus gratuities
In addition to the statutes covering wage and hour laws which are contained in Title 31, Chapter 558, there are specific wage orders with regulations that cover restaurants, mercantile establishments, beauty shops, dry cleaning and laundry. The Administrative Regulations cover all other businesses. Posters with these regulations must be posted at the place of business. Connecticut also provides Spanish versions of the Administrative Regulations and the Restaurant Wage Order.
Minor Employees in Restaurants
Connecticut restaurants employing minors need to limit the hours worked by staff aged 16-17 years old; for example:
During the school years, minor employees may be scheduled only between 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on days when there is school in session the following day (or until midnight if there is no school the following day) – and no more than six hours per day for a total of 32 hours per week.
The minimum wage for minor workers (17 or younger) is:
- January 1, 2014: $8.70
- January 1, 2015: $9.15
- January 1, 2016: $9.60
- January 1, 2016: $10.10
For more information about the regulation of minors employed in Connecticut restaurants, see the Connecticut Employment of Minors posting, which must be displayed by restaurants employing workers under the age of 18 years.
For more information, download the free A Guide to Wage and Workplace Standards Division and Its Laws from Connecticut Department of Labor (CDOL) Wage and Workplace Standards Division (WWSD).
Vermont Goes In Big with $10.50 Minimum Wage
In a nearly unanimous decision, the Vermont House of Representatives ended the 2014 legislative session with a 132-3 vote on a Bill (H.552) to increase the state’s minimum wage to $10.50 per hour by 2018. The $10.50 rate will give Vermont the highest state minimum wage in the U.S.
The legislation has yet to be signed by Governor Shumlin, but he has expressed his support for a minimum wage increase, although his preference was for an increase to $10.10 by 2017.
Vermont’s new minimum wage rate represents a 20 percent increase over the current rate of $8.73 per hour.
Vermont Minimum Wage to Increase in Stages to $10.50 by 2018
The minimum wage in Vermont will increase in stages beginning January 1, 2016 until it reaches the $10.50 level beginning January 1, 2018. Thereafter Vermont’s minimum wage will increase annually by five percent or the percentage increase of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as determined by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Vermont General Assembly’s Back-and-Forth on the Minimum Wage Rate
The House previously had passed a version that raised the minimum wage to a lower rate of $10.10. The Vermont Senate returned that version with mark-up that introduced the $10.50 level, which was then passed by the House.
Both houses of Vermont’s General Assembly reached agreement on the rate that was lower than the minimum wage levels originally introduced in their earliest Bills: $12.00 in the Senate and $12.50 in the House.
Vermont Required Minimum Wage Posting
It’s still early days for the required minimum wage posting to be released by Vermont, but as always, the GovDocs Research Department will continue to monitor for posting revisions. GovDocs Update Program customers will automatically receive the latest posting as part of our Vermont State-on-One poster, Vermont Combined State and Federal poster, or the Vermont Electronic Set.