Connecticut tipped wage calculator: $6.38 and $8.23
Connecticut fixes tipped cash wages in dollars — $6.38 for hotel and restaurant staff and $8.23 for bartenders — while the $16.94 minimum rises every January, and its income tax keeps tips taxable.
A minimum indexed to the employment cost index
Connecticut’s minimum moves with the federal employment cost index. The Labor Commissioner reported a 3.6% rise in the index for the year to June 30, 2025, which produced the $0.59 increase that took effect January 1, 2026. Under the same law the next rate is announced by October 15; it had not been published on our verification date. Because the tipped cash wages are fixed amounts, each increase widens the tip credit rather than raising what employers pay in cash.
Connecticut figures
| Hotel and restaurant workers | $6.38 / $16.94 |
|---|---|
| Bartenders who customarily receive tips | $8.23 / $16.94 |
| In force | July 1, 2026 – December 31, 2026 |
| Next change | after December 31, 2026 — not yet published |
| Tipped threshold | Not specified |
| Tips on the 2025 return | tips stay taxable in this state. The CT-1040 starts from federal AGI; the tips deduction is taken after AGI and Connecticut provides no matching subtraction. Source: Connecticut Department of Revenue Services |
| Tips on the 2026 return | tips stay taxable in this state. No Connecticut tips subtraction had been enacted when we checked. Source: Connecticut Department of Revenue Services |
Tips on the CT-1040
The Connecticut return starts from federal adjusted gross income, and the federal tips deduction is taken only after AGI. Connecticut has not created a matching subtraction, so qualified tips stay in Connecticut income for 2025 and 2026.
A New Haven bartender versus a server
$21,000 of tips with $25,000 of other wages give a $21,000 federal deduction and $2,450 of savings; Connecticut taxes the tips in full. A bartender paid $8.23 an hour for 30 hours receives $247 in cash; with $150 of tips that is short of the $508 minimum by $111, which the bar must pay.
Run a Connecticut workweek (pick bartender or hotel/restaurant)
Where these figures come from
- Connecticut Department of Revenue Services · Connecticut Department of Labor, Wage and Workplace Standards
- 2025 Form CT-1040 instructions (2025-12)
- Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (table by state) (2026-07-01)
- Governor Lamont announces minimum wage will increase (Sept. 2025) (2025-09)
Federal rules: how the deduction works. Nearby: New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island.
Figures verified against primary sources on