The Connecticut Senate gave final legislative approval to a bill that would lift the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2023.
Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont is a supporter and has pledged to sign the bill into law.
More than 330,000 Connecticut workers would benefit from the increase, lawmakers said. The bill would increase the minimum wage to $11 on Oct. 1, $12 on Sept. 1, 2020, $13 on Aug. 1, 2021, $14 on July 1, 2022 and $15 on Oct. 15, 2023. After that date, increases would be tied to the federal Employment Cost Index, which tracks wages and is less volatile than the better-known consumer price index.
In a concession to the business community and municipalities who hire teenagers for the summer, the legislation includes a provision for a “training wage” of $10.10 per hour for workers aged 16 and 17 who work fewer than 90 days per year.
The bill also contains a clause to prevent businesses from replacing older employees with younger workers who can be paid the lower training wage.
Most states have already increased their minimum wage to above the current federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, and many localities have adopted minimum wages above their state minimum wage. But no state minimums are as high as $15 an hour — yet.
Connecticut will follow a small number of states to pass bills that will increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour within the next few years: California will reach $15 an hour in 2022, Massachusetts in 2023, New Jersey in 2024 and Illinois and Maryland in 2025.