Legislative Session Information

The statute, which also extends the prohibition on gender-based wage discrimination, imposes new disclosure requirements for both job applicants and existing employees. Public Act 21-30 mandates that an employer disclose the salary range for an open position to a job applicant either at the applicant's request or before or at the time they are offered the position.

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A new smoking ban in Connecticut that goes into effect that will impact businesses large and small. The smoking ban, known as the Clean Air Act, is included in the state’s marijuana law. Under a provision of Public Act No. 21-1, employers can no longer provide smoking rooms and outdoor smoking areas must be at least 25 feet away from the building. This includes smoking cigarettes, cigars, and vaping.

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Connecticut law has for many years protected workers who assert their rights under the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Act from being discharged or discriminated against by their employer.

Connecticut recently expanded this law to also prohibit employers from disciplining, deliberately misinforming, or deliberately dissuading an employee from filing a claim for workers' compensation benefits or a claim for payment of benefits from the Connecticut Essential Workers COVID-19 Assistance Fund.

A new Connecticut law requires certain employers who are looking to hire employees to initially recall employees who were laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This law applies to hotels, lodging houses, food service contractors, and building service enterprises with 15 or more employees.

The law includes a detailed recall process and generally requires employees to be recalled in order of seniority.

Employers must provide each employee two hours of unpaid time off to vote in any state election or special election for U.S. senator, representative in Congress, state senator, or state representative.

To be eligible, the employee must request the time at least two working days in advance of the election. This law is currently in effect.

Effective August 1, 2021, Connecticut’s minimum wage increased from $12 per hour to $13 per hour.

The minimum wage will increase to $14 per hour on July 1, 2022 and to $15 per hour on June 1, 2023.

Beginning January 1, 2024, the minimum wage will be published in the employment cost index, which is computed by the U.S. Department of Labor, and for the first time in Connecticut, the rate will rise in accordance with economic indicators.

Effective Oct. 1, 2021, employers are prohibited from requesting or requiring a prospective employee to provide their age, date of birth, dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution on an initial employment application, unless age is a bona fide occupational qualification or such information is required to comply with any provision of state or federal law.

Connecticut recently passed the CROWN Act, which stands for Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.

This law, effective March 4, 2021, prohibits discrimination on the basis of traits historically associated with race including, but not limited to, hair texture, and protective hairstyles.

Protective hairstyles includes, but is not limited to, wigs, headwraps and hairstyles such as individual braids, cornrows, locs, twists, Bantu knots, afros, and afro puffs.

Read Carmody’s previous blog on What Employers Need to Know About Connecticut’s New Anti-Discrimination Law, the CROWN Act for more details.

Employers must, as of the dates noted below, begin reporting employee demographic data with their quarterly unemployment reports.

The demographic data must include each employee’s gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, highest education completed, home address, address of primary work site, occupational code, hours worked, days worked, salary or hourly wage, employment start date in the current job title, and, if applicable, employment end date.

Employers with 100 or more employees must start reporting in the third calendar quarter of 2024; employers with 99 or fewer employees must start reporting in the third calendar quarter of 2026; and employers with 49 or fewer employees without an electronic payroll system must start reporting in the third calendar quarter of 2028.

Employers with 100 or more employees must notify their Connecticut resident employees if the employer offers an education assistance program. 

If the employer does offer such a benefit, the employer must provide details of the plan and how employees may apply for such benefits.

Executive Order 7DD suspends, for a period not to exceed sixty days, the requirements for licensure, certification or registration for dentists and dental hygienists.

Suspension of License Renewal
Governor Lamont issued Executive Order 7O on March 27, 2020, which authorized Department of Public Health commissioner to suspend license renewal and inspection requirements during the COVID-19 civil preparedness emergency.  

The DPH commissioner issued an order on March 30, 2020, suspending the requirements for license renewal which became effective immediately and will continue through the duration of the COVID-19 civil preparedness emergency.

What this means regarding your license:
YOU DO NOT NEED TO RENEW YOUR LICENSE NOW IF YOU SO CHOOSE

• If your license was active on or after March 30,2020, your license will not expire during the COVID-19 civil preparedness emergency;
• You will be able to renew your license at any time now and during the six-month period following the date of the resumption of the renewal requirements;
• DPH will continue to send you renewal notices periodically that will allow you to renew your license should you choose not to at this time.

Should you have questions, please email them to oplc.dph@ct.gov.

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has moved the deadline for the Diagnostic and Therapeutic x-ray registration to June 30, 2020. Click here to read the waiver letter from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. 

We have heard from several members saying that their hygienists would like to use their time to take online CE courses when the dental offices are shut down. Last session the legislature repealed the requirement that limited dental hygienists to not more than 4 CEUs online during a 2-year period. There is no longer any limitation on the number of continuing education credits a dental hygienist may obtain online.

We contacted the Connecticut Insurance Department to find out if certain insurance companies in the state are required to provide business interruption insurance coverage to their insured parties in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. We received the following response: 

“As a matter of law, the Connecticut Insurance Department does not have the authority to require insurers to pay for a business interruption insurance issue that is not expressly covered in a policy or contract. This insurance is written and priced in order to provide a balance between availability and affordability. Explicit inclusions and exclusions are contract matters that we cannot overrule ex post facto. Epidemic coverage in regards to business interruption insurance is too big for any single state to address. The Federal Government should act to provide a backstop as it does for terrorism, and as has been proposed in the Pandemic Risk Insurance Act of 2020. As a resource, the Department developed Business Interruption Insurance information and FAQs which can be found here .”

On Sunday, March 14, 2020, Governor Lamont signed an executive order modifying certain state laws in order to allow expanded access to telehealth services to continue in Connecticut during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Connecticut General Assembly met in special session in July 2020 and adopted Public Act 20-2, which codified telehealth provisions and also provided additional flexibility on these services. That public act, however, included an expiration date of March 15, 2021. The order he issued on Sunday, Executive Order No. 10C, slightly modifies that public act by extending its expiration date to April 20, 2021, which is the date that the emergency authority granted to him is set to expire.