If you live and work in Connecticut, you have certain employment rights. Among your employment rights is the right to be notified about certain information pertaining to your job. When you’re hired, for example, your employer is required to give you a written notice that includes information about your pay rate, your hours of employment, and your payday.
In addition, the State of Connecticut mandates that employers hang notification posters in the workplace. For example, if you work in retail, the poster about wage and workplace standards for the mercantile trade should be posted in your store. This notification outlines your employment rights, and includes how commissions are defined under the law, what constitutes “working time,” that the Connecticut minimum wage is $9.60 per hour, and that you’re entitled to four hours of pay (“minimum daily earnings”) when you come to work – even if you’re sent home after an hour.
The notification also covers the requirement that employees must be paid regular wages on a weekly basis and commissions at least once a month. It also stipulates that, after working 40 hours in a week, you are entitled to Connecticut overtime pay of one-and-a-half times your regular pay rate for each hour worked.
If you work for a restaurant or hotel, the poster outlining your employment rights will be somewhat different than the one for those who work in retail. For example, the minimum wage for servers is $5.78 per hour (plus tips), and the minimum wage for bartenders is $7.46 per hour (plus tips). Those who work in the restaurant and hotel industries are entitled to two hours pay when they report for work and are entitled to time-and-a-half when they work on a seventh consecutive day.
If you have a job in the restaurant or hotel industry and your duties include both those where you receive tips and those where you don’t, then the minimum wage rules change. Your employment rights under Connecticut law state that the employer can pay the lower minimum wage for the tipped hours and the higher minimum wage for the hours you work in a job capacity that doesn’t include tips. If the employer is unable to keep separate records for the two different sets of duties, you are entitled to the regular minimum wage for all regular hours worked.
If you work in other types of businesses, the required workplace posters may include information about piece rates (the total must average the hourly minimum wage), about the rules for minors under 18 years of age, about the ways in which travel time must be compensated, and about how much an employer can charge an employee for uniforms (no more than $1.50 per week).
Yet knowing your employment rights and holding your employer accountable are two different things. If you feel as though you’re not being paid fairly, in accordance with the law, it’s time to contact employment lawyers. Employment lawyers can build a case against your employer and defend you against employer retaliation. You’re entitled to be paid a fair wage, and employment lawyers can help ensure that you get the justice you deserve.
About the Author:
Sergei Lemberg is an attorney focusing on consumer law, class actions related to automotive issues, and personal injury litigation. With nearly two decades of experience, his areas of practice include Lemon Law (vehicle defects), Debt Collection Harassment, TCPA (illegal robocalls and texts), Fair Credit Reporting Act, Overtime claims, Personal Injury cases, and Class Actions. He has consistently been recognized as the nation's "most active consumer attorney." In 2020, Mr. Lemberg represented Noah Duguid before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case Duguid v. Facebook. He is also the author of "Defanging Debt Collectors," a guide that empowers consumers to fight back against debt collectors and prevail, as well as "Lemon Law 101: The Laws That Lemon Dealers Don't Want You to Know."
