Connecticut restaurant pay rules (2026): what to pay tipped and non-tipped staff

Connecticut's minimum wage is $16.94 an hour in 2026, and it rises every January with the employment cost index (CT DOL, restaurant wage order; C.G.S. ch. 558). A server can be paid $6.38 in cash wages and a bartender $8.23 when tips make up the rest, and those two figures are written into the statute: they haven't changed since 2019, so each raise in the minimum wage makes the tip credit bigger (C.G.S. ch. 558). The catch for cafés is who counts: the credit is for staff who serve patrons at tables or booths and for bartenders, not for counter staff (Regs. Conn. State Agencies § 31-62-E).

This page puts Connecticut's figures in one place. It covers what you owe tipped staff like servers and bartenders, what you owe everyone else, and two example weeks with the math shown. Every figure links to the official page it comes from.

Updated September 24, 2026: these figures are still current. Connecticut's minimum wage is $16.94 an hour ($6.38 cash wage for tipped employees, $8.23 for bartenders) through December 31, 2026. It rises to $17.48 on January 1, 2027, while the cash wage for tipped employees stays $6.38, and $8.23 for bartenders. We re-read the next minimum wage change on its official source on October 6, 2026. Since October 1, 2026, a job ad must state the wage or wage range and describe the benefits (CT Public Act 26-12).

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a rule applies can depend on your business's size and your own facts; the note at the end says more.

Connecticut pay rules at a glance

As of May 27, 2026:

Sources: CT DOL, restaurant wage order; US DOL, tipped wages by state; CT Governor, 2027 minimum wage; C.G.S. ch. 558.

Who counts as a tipped employee in Connecticut

Connecticut has no threshold of its own, so the federal one applies: a tipped employee is someone who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips (US DOL, tipped wages by state).

The tip credit reaches two kinds of staff who customarily get tips: bartenders, and service employees, whose job is serving food or drinks to patrons seated at tables or booths and the duties that go with it, from taking orders to rolling silverware. Counter staff are non-service employees under the restaurant wage order, so a café's counter team gets the full $16.94 whatever it earns in tips, and so do cooks and dishwashers (Regs. Conn. State Agencies § 31-62-E). If someone works two jobs, say a server who also works prep shifts, the tip credit applies only to the hours in the tipped job (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

What you must pay tipped staff in Connecticut

Servers, bartenders and other service employees who get tips can be paid a lower cash wage, with part of their tips counted toward the minimum wage. That's the tip credit, and it comes with conditions:

• Pay at least $6.38 an hour in cash wages, or $8.23 to bartenders. That's the $16.94 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips: $10.56, or $8.71 for bartenders (CT DOL, restaurant wage order).
• Cash wages plus tips must reach $16.94 for every hour worked, week by week. If tips fall short in a workweek, you pay the difference by the regular payday for that week (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Tell them first. Before you take the tip credit, tell each tipped employee, in writing or out loud: the cash wage you pay, the tip credit you claim, that the credit can't be more than the tips they actually get, that they keep all their tips except through a valid tip pool, and that the credit doesn't apply unless you've told them all this (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Overtime is figured on the full minimum wage. An overtime hour is worth 1.5 × $16.94 = $25.41. After the $10.56 tip credit, you pay at least $14.85 of it in cash wages (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• From January 1, 2027, the minimum wage is $17.48 (CT Governor, 2027 minimum wage), but the tipped cash wage stays $6.38, or $8.23 for bartenders: Connecticut law fixes the cash wage, not the tip credit, so the most you can credit from tips grows to $11.10, or $9.25 for bartenders (C.G.S. ch. 558).

You don't have to take the tip credit. If you pay tipped staff the full $16.94 an hour, their tips are all on top, there's nothing to make up at the end of the week, and you can put kitchen staff in the tip pool (see below).

Connecticut's own tip-credit conditions

• A record of each week's tips. Record the tips you count toward the minimum wage daily, weekly or every two weeks, backed by an attestation or statement from the employee for each payroll week; it can come from your point-of-sale system (Regs. Conn. State Agencies § 31-62-E).
• Side work cancels the day’s credit. On a day a server spends 2 hours or more, or more than 20% of the shift, on duties that aren’t service, whichever is less, you can’t take the tip credit for that day (Regs. Conn. State Agencies § 31-62-E).
• No credit while you're closed. Hours a server works while the restaurant isn't open to patrons don't count as service, and you can't take the tip credit for them (Regs. Conn. State Agencies § 31-62-E).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Connecticut

Cooks, dishwashers, prep cooks, and cashiers or counter staff who don't get tips are paid like any other hourly employee:

• At least $16.94 an hour for every hour worked, and at least $17.48 from January 1, 2027 (CT Governor, 2027 minimum wage). No tip credit applies.
• The same goes for a tipped employee's hours in a non-tipped job, like a server's prep shift (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Overtime is at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. At $16.94 an hour, that's $25.41 (CT DOL, restaurant wage order).
• Can they share in the tip pool? Only if you take no tip credit and pay everyone in the pool at least the full minimum wage. If you take a tip credit, a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips (US DOL, tips). Managers and supervisors can never take from the pool.

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are Connecticut's as of May 27, 2026.

A server's week: when you have to top up

Sam is a server paid the $6.38 cash wage. He works 27 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $360.00 in tips and a slow one with $190.00.

In the slow week, $190.00 in tips covers only part of the $285.12 tip credit (27 × $10.56), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $457.38 − $362.26 = $95.12. In the busy week you owe nothing extra, and every dollar of tips is still Sam's.

A cook's week with overtime

Ana is a line cook paid the Connecticut minimum wage, $16.94 an hour. Over five days she works 9, 9, 8, 9 and 9 hours: 44 hours in all.

Overtime is counted by the workweek, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks: a long week earns overtime even if the next one is short (US DOL, overtime). Bonuses can change the rate too; see Time clock, breaks and overtime: first-month payroll mistakes to avoid.

Tip pooling rules in Connecticut

No specific Connecticut rule found — federal rules apply (CT DOL, restaurant wage order). Under federal law (US DOL, tips):

• The business, its managers and supervisors never keep employees' tips. A manager can't take anything from a pool; they may keep only tips for service they directly and solely provide. An owner with a real stake who helps run the business counts as a manager too.
• With a tip credit, a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips: servers, bartenders, bussers, counter staff who serve customers.
• Without a tip credit, when everyone in the pool gets at least the full minimum wage, you can include cooks and dishwashers.
• Card fees: you may reduce a card tip by the percentage the card company actually charges you, and no more (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Service charges aren't tips. Money you share with staff from a mandatory service charge is wages, and it counts in the regular rate for overtime (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
• Pay pooled tips out by the regular payday for the week or pay period (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

How to split a pool fairly, with a worked example: Tip pooling for new restaurant owners.

Overtime in Connecticut

Connecticut has its own overtime rule (CT DOL, restaurant wage order): Time and a half the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. The restaurant wage order adds at least 1.5 times the minimum wage for all time worked on the seventh consecutive day of work, recorded as a separate payroll item. No daily overtime.

The federal rule applies to covered employers as well: at least 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek (US DOL, overtime). Where the two differ, pay the higher amount.

For tipped staff, overtime is figured on the full minimum wage, not the cash wage (see the tipped section above).

Breaks in Connecticut

• Meal breaks: A meal period of at least 30 consecutive minutes for anyone working 7.5 or more hours in a row, some time after the first 2 hours of work and before the last 2. It doesn't apply if you give at least 30 minutes of paid rest or meal periods in each 7.5-hour work period, or if you and the employee agree in writing to a different schedule, and the Labor Commissioner exempts, among others, an employer with fewer than 5 employees on a shift at one place of business (for that shift). The law doesn't say whether the meal period is paid (C.G.S. ch. 557).
• Rest breaks: No specific Connecticut rule found — federal rules apply (US DOL, state rest periods). The FLSA does not require breaks. Short breaks an employer offers (about 5 to 20 minutes) are paid work time (US DOL, breaks).
• Minors: No separate Connecticut rule for minors; the adult rules above apply to them too (US DOL, state meal periods).

Other Connecticut rules that affect pay

• Reporting-time pay: An employee who reports for work as usual, or is called in, on any day gets at least 2 hours' earnings at no less than the minimum wage, unless you gave notice the day before or the employee can't or won't work that long, in which case keep a statement they've signed on file (CT DOL, restaurant wage order).
• Paid sick leave: Employers with 11 or more employees in Connecticut in 2026, and with 1 or more from January 1, 2027: an employee earns 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, carries over up to 40 unused hours and can use it from 120 calendar days after hire, paid at their normal hourly wage or the minimum wage, whichever is more. Seasonal employees, who work 120 days or less a year, aren't covered (CT DOL, paid sick leave FAQs).
• Food handler training: A certified food protection manager is required, not a card for every employee. Who: one certified food protection manager per class 2-4 establishment (C.G.S. ch. 368a).

Sick leave, paid leave, paydays and minors

• Sick time for tipped staff is paid at the full minimum wage or more, never at the $6.38 cash wage (CT DOL, paid sick leave FAQs).
• CT Paid Leave. Employees pay 0.5% of their wages into the state's paid leave program, which you deduct and send in; there's no employer share (CT Paid Leave, contributions; CT Paid Leave, employers).
• Weekly or every two weeks. Pay hourly staff weekly or every two weeks. Pay someone you fire by the next business day, and someone who quits by the next regular payday (C.G.S. ch. 558).
• No restaurant jobs under 16. Connecticut doesn't let anyone under 16 work in a restaurant (C.G.S. ch. 557).

Local rates in Connecticut

We found no Connecticut city or county with its own minimum wage, so the state figures apply across Connecticut.

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For Connecticut pay rules, that means:

• Positions and wages. Give each position a default hourly wage, for example the tipped cash wage for servers and at least the minimum wage for cooks. Turn on Labor law compliance and Mays looks up each location's minimum wage from its address and warns you when a position's default wage, someone's hourly wage or a punch is below it, comparing tipped positions with the tipped cash wage when it has that figure. It never blocks the save. It switches to the new rate on January 1, 2027 by itself, and admins get a reminder 30 and 7 days before, listing the wages below the new rate.
• A tip pool per location. Split pooled tips by hours worked, equally or by FTAR score, per pay period or day by day, and choose which positions receive. Until you pick positions under Who receives, the positions marked Tipped share the tips; if no position is marked, everyone who worked does, cooks included. So if you take a tip credit, tick Tipped position only on positions whose staff get tips, or pick them yourself. A punch with no position counts under its shift's position, or else the person's primary or only position at that location; with neither, its hours get no share, and the tip pool card shows how many punches that leaves out. Leave managers and admins out of the pool is on by default, so leave it on. The tips come from your connected POS at that location (Square or Union) or from tips synced with 7shifts time punches, and each person's share appears in the Tip Payouts report and the payroll export. If you take your card processor's fee out of card tips, turn on Labor law compliance and Deduct the card processing fee from card tips: Mays deducts only your processor's percentage, split in proportion to each person's card tips, and shows it on the pay period and in the export.
• The tip-credit make-up is yours to check. Mays doesn't compare a tipped employee's cash wages plus tips with the minimum wage, so check each workweek the way the server example above does.
• Time clock and timesheets. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag. Timesheets run by pay period. Overtime is counted by the workweek, and with Labor law compliance on, by any daily, double-time and seventh-day rule the location's state sets too, which Mays reads from its address; the schedule's labor cost, the reports and the pay summary all include it.
• Payroll export. A standard CSV or a Gusto-format CSV with regular and overtime hours and pooled tips for each employee. A card surcharge you share with staff goes in as wages, not tips.
• Reporting-time pay, per location. Turn on Labor law compliance and Mays reads Connecticut's rule from each location's address and records it when a punch is clocked out. Each lands on the pay period's Exceptions tab and in its own column of the pay summary and the payroll export, and the location's settings list the conditions Mays can't check beside the official source.
• Food protection manager certificate. Turn on Labor law compliance and keep your certified manager's certificate in Mays with its expiry date. Each location shows whether someone there holds a valid one, and Mays reminds them and their managers before it expires.
• Two cash wages. Give the server position a default wage of $6.38 and the bartender position $8.23, and counter staff at least $16.94. With Labor law compliance on, Mays compares every position with Tipped position ticked with the $6.38 server wage, so it won't warn about a bartender paid less than $8.23, or about counter staff on a tipped position paid less than $16.94. It also can't tell a counter shift from a table shift, so a server who covers the counter needs that time on a position paid the full rate.
• Paid sick leave. With Labor law compliance on, the Sick category under Scheduling → Settings → Time off & PTO accrual shows Connecticut's rules for each location, and Apply these rules fills them in: at least one hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year, Connecticut's carryover limit, and the 120-day wait before new hires can use it, counted from the Hire date on each person's Employment tab. Everyone who works hours earns it from approved punches, managers included, and approved sick days show on the Time Off calendar. Mays doesn't set the rate sick hours are paid at, so pay tipped staff's sick time at the full minimum wage yourself.
• The seventh day in a row is yours to spot. With Labor law compliance on, the Overtime panel on a location's Labor & compliance card lists Connecticut's seventh-day premium as not applied, with its source: Mays doesn't flag a seventh consecutive day of work or add the premium on the minimum wage, so check schedules and punches for it.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

• Connecticut Department of Labor, restaurant minimum wage order (DOL-79, January 2026), checked September 24, 2026
• Connecticut General Statutes, chapter 558 (wages), checked September 24, 2026
• Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies §§ 31-60-1 to 31-62-E15 (minimum wage and the restaurant wage order), checked September 24, 2026
• Connecticut Public Act 26-12, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, minimum wages for tipped employees by state, checked September 24, 2026
• Connecticut Governor's office, the 2027 minimum wage (August 5, 2026), checked October 6, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #15: tipped employees under the FLSA, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, tips under the FLSA, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, overtime pay, checked September 24, 2026
• Connecticut General Statutes, chapter 557 (employment regulation), checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, breaks and meal periods, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, state rest period requirements, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, state meal period requirements, checked September 24, 2026
• Connecticut Department of Labor, paid sick leave FAQs, checked September 24, 2026
• Connecticut General Statutes, chapter 368a (Department of Public Health), checked September 24, 2026
• CT Paid Leave Authority, contributions, checked September 24, 2026
• CT Paid Leave Authority, for employers, checked September 24, 2026

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and coverage rules (your business's size, whether federal law covers you) decide which of them apply. Check the pages above, and ask an employment lawyer or accountant about your situation.

Run Connecticut payroll on the right numbers

Set each position's wage, turn on the tip pool with managers left out, and let the time clock count overtime by the workweek. Then payroll is an export, not an evening.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Setting up a tip pool? Read Tip pooling for new restaurant owners.