The Connecticut State Senate has passed a bill to increase the state’s minimum wage by 75 cents to $9 an hour by January 2015.
If signed into law, the bill would increase minimum wage by 45 cents an hour, effective January 2014, and by another 30 cents in January 2015.
The bill, which required 19 votes for approval, passed by a margin of 21 to 15. The May 23 vote came after an amendment halved the initially proposed minimum wage increase. Legislators also eliminated a provision that would have tied automatic increases in the minimum wage to the consumer price index.
The proposal now moves to the state House of Representatives.
“This change will make it just a little easier for working people in our state without adversely impacting the business community,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in a statement. “I am hopeful that this legislation will advance through the House during the coming days and I look forward to signing it into law when it reaches my desk.”
Advocates of the bill when it was first announced said it would provide workers with a minimum amount of financial security, while critics said it would lead to fewer jobs, hurting the same class of people the bill is trying to help.
The state’s minimum wage was last raised in 2010 to $8.25 an hour, which is the second-highest minimum wage in New England behind Vermont, at $8.60 an hour. Efforts to raise the state’s minimum wage last year were defeated.
