Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is touting a raise in the state minimum wage coming Jan. 1, 2026, but it’s likely not enough to live on according to many economic indicators.
At that time, the lowest wage an employer can pay will be rise from the current rate of $16.35 per hour to $16.94 per hour. It’s an automatic increase tied to the federal employment cost index required by a state law signed in 2019.
“The commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Labor is required to review this percentage change and announce any necessary adjustments by October 15 of each year. Those adjustments must take effect on January 1 of the following year,” a release from Lamont’s office explains. “Connecticut Labor Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo reports that the employment cost index increased by 3.6% over the twelve-month period ending on June 30, 2025, accounting for a $0.59 increase to the state’s minimum wage that will become effective on January 1, 2026.”
Lamont called the increase “fair” and “modest” and noted that the money will immediately return to the state’s economy as minimum wage workers purchase necessities.
“Nobody who works full-time should have to live in poverty,” Lamont said. “For too long, as 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.”
“The minimum wage was established to provide a fair, livable baseline of income for those who work,” Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said. “This is a fair, gradual increase for workers that ensures that as the economy grows, our minimum wage grows with it – and that’s good for everyone.”
The release notes also that more than 60% of minimum wage earners in Connecticut are women and people of color, according to the Current Population Survey as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But many organizations’ benchmarks put the minimum wage well below a livable income, particularly in Connecticut, where the cost of living is high.
MIT’s Living Wage Calculator for Connecticut puts a living wage at $25.28 an hour for a single adult with no children; $50.45 for a single adult with one child; and $64.64 for a single adult with two children. In a two-adult home with one adult working, that adult would need to make $35.39 per hour to support a household without children; $45.53 for a household with two adults and one child; $47.99 with two children. In a home with two adults working, each adult would need to make $17.69 per hour with no children to support; $27.74 with one child; $34.90 with two children and $40.42 in a two-adult home with three children.
The rate is calculated to show what each adult “must earn to support themselves and/or their family, working full-time, or 2080 hours per year.” In contrast, the 2025 federal poverty threshold falls between $7 and $18 an hour for the various households, with an annual salary of $15,650 for a single worker and $32,150 for a family of four.
In 2024, the Connecticut Project Action Fund pegged the state’s cost of living as 13% higher than the national average, with 24% higher housing costs, 30% higher utility costs, 9% higher food costs and the fifth highest child care costs in the U.S. The advocacy group found “it takes more than $126,000 per year for a family of four in Connecticut to make ends meet.”
A DataHaven survey late last year found that 40% of adults in Connecticut are struggling to make ends meet.
And a survey by The Urban Institute think tank at the same time said that 52% of all people in the United States lack economic security. The costs are even higher in states in the Northeast, including Connecticut, where the cost of economic security in 2022 was estimated at $151,000 for a family of four.
