Minimum wage workers in Connecticut are getting a raise Sunday, to $13 an hour that will for the first time drive wages to above $500 a week for a full-time, 40-hour-a-week employee.
Legislation enacted in 2019 and pushed strongly by labor unions and their legislative allies nationwide called for increases over five years. It’s currently $12 an hour and will reach $15 by June 1, 2023, a nearly 50% increase from where it stood two years ago.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2024, the minimum wage will be indexed to the employment cost index that’s calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor and will rise automatically. The index tracks wages and is less volatile than the better-known consumer price index, which gauges the rate of inflation.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has not increased since 2009. President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats in Congress unsuccessfully sought to increase it to $15.
“Nobody working a full-time job should live in poverty,” Lamont said. “For too long, while 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.”
He called it a “fair, modest increase.”
Business lobbyists opposed the higher minimum wage and are still against it.
Lamont and his economic development team earlier this month touted a CNBC ranking of the states that placed Connecticut No. 24, up from 35 in 2019. However, Connecticut fell to No. 45 from 43 in the cost of doing business.
“Major national rankings demonstrate Connecticut is one of the costliest places to do business and live, and this is one of the drivers of those high costs,” said Eric Gjede, vice president for government affairs at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.
He also said automatic indexing is a “problem in complicated downturns like the one we are currently experiencing.”
Few issues have been debated more frequently than raising the minimum wage, with both sides showing studies and analyses that support their position. The state House of Representatives passed the minimum wage bill in May 2019 after a 14-hour debate and the Senate approved it after a back-and-forth that lasted 61/2 hours.
Many employers aren’t waiting for government to order a minimum wage increase. Businesses are coping with labor shortages due to the pandemic or are seeking to lure workers off unemployment compensation fattened by federal supplemental pay.
The Mystic Seaport Museum announced Thursday it’s raising pay to $15 an hour. And full- or part-time staff members who are paid between $15 and $20 an hour will receive a $1-an-hour increase on Saturday.
“We are confident that by providing better-paying jobs, with real benefits, we will attract and retain employees who are committed to working to make the Mystic Seaport Museum experience the best it can be,” said its president, Peter Armstrong.
Synchrony, a Stamford-based financial services company, announced July 13 it will raise its minimum wage to $20 an hour. A higher minimum wage will allow Synchrony to “remain an employer of choice now and for the future,” Chief Executive Officer Brian Doubles said.
And McDonald’s announced in May it is raising pay at corporate-owned locations for entry-level workers to at least $11 to $17 an hour. The move could pressure other fast-food businesses to follow its lead.
Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.
