Connecticut's new pay law: wages in every job ad, full minimum wage for budtenders

Since October 1, 2026, every Connecticut employer that advertises a job, inside the company or to the public, has to put the wage or wage range and a general description of the benefits in the ad. The same date ended the use of tips toward the minimum wage at cannabis dispensaries, producers and other cannabis establishments, so budtenders must get the full $16.94 an hour from their employer before tips. And employers with 100 or more employees must now publish a guide that explains the pay codes on their pay stubs.

All three changes come from Public Act 26-12, the omnibus workforce bill that started as House Bill 5003. Governor Lamont signed it on May 11, 2026. Most of its 124 pages deal with training programs and task forces; these are the parts that touch a job ad or a paycheck.

Job ads must now show the pay

Connecticut has required wage ranges since October 2021, but only on request. Under the old version of section 31-40z, an employer had to give an applicant the range when the applicant asked for it, or before or at the time of an offer, whichever came first. Current employees could get the range for their own job when hired, when their position changed, or on their first request. Nothing had to appear in the ad itself, which is why so many Connecticut postings still read "competitive salary."

Section 2 of the new act adds a flat rule: no employer may fail to disclose, in an internal or public job advertisement, the wages or wage range for the position and a general description of the benefits. A few details matter more than they look:

• Every employer is covered. The definition is any employer "using the services of one or more employees for pay," including the state and towns. There is no small-business exemption.
• Benefits now count. The act defines benefits as health insurance, retirement, fringe benefits, paid leave and any other compensation besides wages. A general description is enough; a dollar value is not required.
• The range has to be real. The wage range used to mean what the employer "anticipates relying on." It now means the range the employer "sets in good faith" for the position. A $40,000 to $200,000 range for a clerk job is the kind of thing that wording targets.
• Remote jobs tied to Connecticut are included. The rule applies when the work is done in the state, or done elsewhere by someone who reports to a supervisor, office or worksite in Connecticut.
• Unadvertised jobs still have a rule. If a position was never posted, the applicant gets the range and the benefits description on request, or before any discussion of compensation, whichever comes first. That is earlier than the old "at the time of an offer."

Enforcement stays private. An applicant or employee can sue within two years and recover compensatory damages, attorney's fees and costs. One change cuts the other way: the act deletes punitive damages from the list of remedies that the old statute allowed. There is no Labor Department fine written into this section.

For job seekers, the practical gain is being able to compare offers before applying. A posting at $22 to $26 an hour is a $45,760 to $54,080 job at full time, and with a benefits line you can tell whether health insurance is part of the deal. Connecticut now sits with the stricter states in our pay transparency roundup.

Cannabis workers: tips no longer count toward the wage

Section 6 of the act adds a subsection to the cannabis statute, section 21a-421d: the Labor Commissioner "shall not recognize, as part of the minimum fair wage, gratuities" for people employed at a cannabis establishment, dispensary facility or producer. A cannabis business that pays less than the minimum wage is in violation of section 31-60, the state minimum wage law.

Strictly, this was already the direction of Connecticut law. The tip credit in section 31-60 covers hotel and restaurant workers, whose employer must pay at least $6.38 an hour, and bartenders, at $8.23. In any other industry, the statute limits any credit for tips to 35 cents an hour. The Labor Committee's report on an identical 2025 bill says the change was prompted by at least one cannabis retailer paying staff the subminimum tipped wage without the documentation to do so. The new law closes the argument. It does not name the retailer, and no official figure says how many dispensaries did this.

If your dispensary paid you the restaurant server rate, the gap at the counter looks like this:

That $17,571.84 is not all new money, and it's worth being clear why. Under the old setup, the employer still owed you $16.94 an hour once tips were added, and had to top up any shortfall. So the real change is that your tips now sit on top of $16.94 instead of filling the hole below it. Your gain per hour equals your tips, up to a ceiling of $10.56.

Take a budtender averaging $3.00 an hour in tips. Before, $6.38 plus $3.00 is $9.38, and the employer owed a $7.56 top-up to reach $16.94. Now it's $16.94 plus $3.00, or $19.94. That's $3.00 an hour more, $4,992 a year at 32 hours. Someone averaging $12.00 an hour in tips was at $18.38 before and is at $28.94 now: the full $10.56 gain, $17,571.84 a year. If a past employer paid the tipped rate without topping you up, section 31-68 lets you sue for twice the unpaid amount plus attorney's fees, or the full amount if the employer shows it acted in good faith.

Employers with 100 or more workers: a pay code guide

Section 38 adds a new subsection to section 31-13a, the Connecticut law that already required a pay stub with hours, straight-time and overtime earnings as separate entries, deductions and net pay. From October 1, an employer with 100 or more employees must create a guide to the pay codes it uses for overtime and its most common pay differentials. The act lists examples: shift differential, on-call pay, hazard pay, call-back pay, holiday or weekend pay and geographic differentials.

The guide must include at least ten pay codes where the employer has that many, and must be posted on the employer's website in English, Spanish and the other languages most common among its employees. It must name the office or person who handles disputes over hours and differential calculations, and it must be updated whenever a new overtime or differential code is added. The employer gives you the web address when you're hired and prints it on every pay stub; a written copy at hire in English and your primary language also complies. A guide supplied by a third-party payroll company counts, and the act doesn't force anyone to build a website or invent new codes. The 100-employee count in the act isn't limited to employees in Connecticut.

The point is checking your own math. If line OT2 or DIF3 on your stub means nothing to you, the guide tells you what rate it is supposed to pay, and who to call when the hours look wrong.

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