Connecticut Restaurant Workers

The fight

One Fair Wage and state partners are launching a statewide Living Wage For All coalition in Connecticut in summer 2026. The campaign target: $25/hour for all Connecticut workers and an end to the tipped subminimum wage.

In March 2024, the Connecticut Labor and Public Employees Committee cleared SB 221 — a bill to phase out the tipped subminimum wage by July 2027 — but the full legislature did not take it up. The new coalition is launching to finish what the committee started.

The cost-of-living gap

Connecticut has one of the highest minimum wages in the country at $16.94. It is still nearly $9/hour short of what a single adult needs to cover basic costs. For families, the gap is dramatically larger.

The tipped subminimum wage for Connecticut waitstaff is $6.38/hour — frozen since 2017. Bartenders are at $8.23. Both are well below the federal $7.25 floor when the math actually works out for many shifts.

Who’s in

The launching coalition combines three complementary strengths:

• One Fair Wage — the national OFW restaurant-worker network, research program, and the policy template that won D.C. (2022) and Chicago (2023).

The coalition expands as the campaign launches.

The political moment

Connecticut’s minimum wage is among the highest in the country at $16.94 in 2026 — but the MIT Minimum Living Wage for a single adult in Connecticut is $25.28/hour, nearly $9 short. For families, the gap is dramatically larger. The tipped subminimum wage for Connecticut waitstaff is $6.38/hour — frozen since 2017. Bartenders are at $8.23. Both are well below the federal $7.25 floor when tips fall short on quiet shifts, leaving Connecticut tipped workers exposed in a state with the third-highest cost of living in the country.

The legislative groundwork already exists. In March 2024, the Connecticut Labor and Public Employees Committee cleared SB 221 — a bill to phase out the tipped subminimum wage by July 2027 — but the full legislature did not take it up before adjournment. The new coalition is launching to finish what the committee started. Summer 2026 kickoff. One Fair Wage and state partners are leading the launch, with conversations underway with SEIU 1199 New England, the Connecticut AFL-CIO, the Connecticut chapter of the NAACP, and the Working Families Party of Connecticut.

What the campaign targets

The campaign target is $25/hour for all Connecticut workers, ending the tipped subminimum wage, and bringing the full minimum wage closer to the actual cost of living. The strategic frame builds on what worked in D.C. (Initiative 82, 2022) and Chicago (One Fair Wage Ordinance, 2023) and now Michigan: worker-led coalition + ballot or legislative vehicle + research showing restaurants thrive at higher wage floors. Connecticut’s restaurant employment data tracks the same pattern: jobs grow when wages grow.

Three reports to start with