With Connecticut soon to join 18 other states with a minimum wage linked to inflation, Connecticut lawmakers have yet to signal whether they are considering any additional increase to the base rate for 2024 or beyond.
Connecticut's minimum wage is scheduled to rise a dollar next June to $15 an hour, completing a schedule of five increases since 2019 when Connecticut's lowest-paid workers received $11 an hour. Under Connecticut law, starting in 2024 the state's minimum wage will be pegged to annual inflation, giving workers additional wiggle room during any future stretches of rising prices.
Many corporations having pledged base pay at $15 an hour or higher nationally in the past few years in response to worker pressure that intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with annualized inflation above 7 percent in the back half of 2022, the lowest-paid workers have taken the biggest hit in absorbing increases for rent, gas, food, and other basic necessities.
Any further tinkering with Connecticut's minimum wage would be weighed in the General Assembly's Labor and Public Employees Committee, which was chaired in the 2022 session by Sen. Julie Kushner, D-24th, and Rep. Robyn Porter, D-94th.
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