May 26—Connecticut's minimum wage will rise from $14 an hour to $15 an hour on Thursday, June 1, the fifth minimum-wage hike since Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a 2019 bill that scheduled increases every 11 months.
Before the first of the five increases, the state's minimum wage was $10.10 an hour.
"This is a fair, modest increase, and the money earned will be spent right back into our own economy and support local businesses," Lamont said Thursday in an announcement reminding people of the latest bump in the minimum wage.
What hasn't changed over the past four years is the "subminimum wage" employers of tipped employees ― those working in service jobs in hotels and restaurants and as bartenders ― are required to pay. Employers are allowed to credit some of their employees' tips toward their obligation to pay the minimum wage.
In Connecticut, the subminimum wage for service employees, such as waiters and waitresses, will remain $6.38 an hour and for bartenders $8.23 an hour. Employers can take a "tip credit" ― the difference between the subminimum wage and the minimum wage ― so long as the employee earns the minimum wage with tips. As of June 1, employers can take tip credits of $8.62 an hour for waiters and waitresses and $6.77 an hour for bartenders.
Employers are required to pay more, if necessary, to ensure workers receive minimum wage.
A bill approved in March by the legislature's Labor and Public Employees Committee and awaiting further consideration would eliminate the subminimum wage and establish one minimum wage across the board. It would ensure that tipped workers are paid minimum wage without relying on tips from customers to supplement a subminimum wage.
The committee's eight Democratic members voted for the bill while its four Republican members voted against it.
Testifying at a public hearing on the bill, Dante Bartolomeo, commissioner of the state Department of Labor, noted that the 2019 law that increased the minimum wage for most workers did not benefit tipped workers. She also said the department was concerned that an unintended consequence of the bill could be that customers tip less, reducing tipped workers' wages.
Representatives of labor unions supported the bill, with SEIU District 1199 New England testifying that about 70,000 tipped workers in Connecticut's restaurant and hospitality industries were left behind by the 2019 law. Union reps said that since 70% of the state's tipped workers are women and 36% are people of color, passage of the bill would address racial and gender inequities.