A minimum-wage increase is likely coming. It should arrive in the form of a home-rule option to raise the rate to some maximum and should be offset by cuts in regulatory costs on the hardest-hit businesses.
While a bill to raise Connecticut’s minimum wage to $15 an hour died in May, legislators may want to consider a new report before resurrecting the idea during the next session.
Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, is an outspoken proponent of increasing Connecticut’s minimum wage to $15, going so far as to grade fellow House Democrats on whether or not they support the increase. There’s only one problem: Elliott doesn't pay his own employees $15 per hour.
After years of employers telling Connecticut lawmakers they can’t afford another minimum wage increase or a paid family medical leave program, it turns out that Connecticut government can’t afford those changes either.