Public Act No. 26-12 Is a Gamechanger for Connecticut Workplace Compliance – Here Are the Highlights

A sweeping labor and employment bill passed at the end of Connecticut’s 2026 legislative session was signed by the governor on May 11. Public Act No. 26-12, An Act Concerning Workforce Development and Working Conditions in the State, makes far‑reaching changes to Connecticut’s workplace laws. The Act spans more than 120 pages and combines provisions from dozens of individual bills introduced during the 2026 session. While numerous sections of the omnibus bill had failed in this and past legislative sessions, combining the provisions into a single bill enabled unions and other employee advocates to maneuver passage of the package as the legislative session expired. 

The result is an act that changes the legal landscape for public and private sector employers across a wide range of industries. Among other things, the Act addresses liability for unpaid wages in the construction trades, expands workers’ compensation for employees injured by workplace assaults, modifies pay‑transparency requirements, expands break time for nursing mothers, and broadens workplace rights of police, firefighters and veterans.

While this article focuses on the new measures that apply to private employers, note that there are other portions of the Act, not discussed here, that affect public employers specifically.¹ 

Wages, Compensation and Pay Transparency

Mandatory Wage Range and Benefits Disclosure in All Job Postings 

Effective October 1, 2026, all employers, regardless of size, must include a position’s wage or wage range, as well as a general description of the position’s benefits, in both public and internal job postings. “Benefits” are defined as “health insurance benefits, retirement benefits, fringe benefits, paid leave and any other compensation other than wages to be offered with a position.”

The amended statute revises the definition of “wage range” from the range an employer “anticipates relying on when setting wages” to a range the employer “sets in good faith.” This aligns Connecticut’s definition of wage range with pay transparency statutes enacted in other jurisdictions. The amendment applies not only to jobs performed in Connecticut, but also to out‑of‑state positions that report to a Connecticut‑based supervisor, office, or worksite.

The statute continues to authorize private rights of action, but the amendment eliminates punitive damages. Compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees remain available.

Expanded Restrictions of Employment Promissory Notes 

Since 1985, Connecticut law has prohibited employment promissory notes, or agreements requiring employees to repay money an employer advances for training, sign-on bonus or relocation expenses, if the employee leaves before working a specified period. Employers with 25 or fewer employees were, however, exempted from this provision. Beginning October 1, 2026, the prohibition will apply to all employers, regardless of size. The law does not prohibit employers and employes from entering into voluntary agreements for repayment of amounts advanced by the employer.

Minimum Wage at Cannabis Establishments 

The Act eliminates tip credits in the compensation of employees working for cannabis establishments, dispensary facilities, or producers. These employers must now pay employees at least Connecticut’s minimum wage without using tips to supplement a lower hourly rate. This provision takes effect October 1, 2026. 

Paycheck Transparency 

Effective October 1, 2026, employers with at least 100 employees must create a plain‑language guide explaining the pay codes they use for overtime and commonly used pay differentials. Examples include shift differentials, on‑call pay, hazard pay, call‑back pay, holiday or weekend pay, and geographic pay differentials. If applicable, the guide must include no fewer than 10 pay codes and must be updated whenever a new overtime or pay differential code is added. 

The guide must be posted on the employer’s website in English, Spanish, and the other commonly spoken languages of the employer’s workforce. It must identify the office or individual responsible for handling employee questions or disputes related to timekeeping and pay calculations. Employers must provide employees with access to the guide by sharing the website address at hire and including a link on each record of hours worked that they provide to employees. 

The Act treats employers as compliant if they use a third‑party payroll service that supplies a pay‑code guide that meets the statute’s standards. The Act does not require employers to create or maintain a website if they do not already have one and does not require employers to create new pay codes solely to comply with the statute.

Prevailing Wage

Effective October 1, 2026, employers working on projects subject to Connecticut’s prevailing wage requirements must keep daily attendance records for all mechanics, laborers, and other workers on a covered job site. The records must list: the project name and location, the date, each worker’s name (and trade license number, if applicable), and each worker’s arrival and departure times. Employers must submit these daily attendance records weekly to the contracting agency. 

These records will be treated as public records subject to the Freedom of Information Act, meaning anyone may inspect or copy them. An employer that fails to maintain and submit these records may face fines, imprisonment, or both.

The Act also clarifies how prevailing wage rates are set on public works projects. When calculating those rates, the labor commissioner must now determine the portion attributable to benefit payments and contributions, such as health insurance and retirement benefits, using the journeyman rate.

Contractor Liability for Unpaid Wages 

For any contract entered on or after January 1, 2027, the Act makes general contractors (GC) liable for wages not paid by their subcontractors for construction, renovation, or rehabilitation projects in the state. 

The GC will be jointly and severally liable for any unpaid wages owed to a subcontractor’s employee for work performed under the construction contract. Before bringing a claim against the GC, the employee must provide 30 days’ notice describing the general nature of the alleged violation. The 30-day notice is not required, however, if the employee has raised this issue (or a different violation by the same subcontractor) to the GC previously. 

For some level of protection, GCs can include a provision in the subcontract authorizing that unpaid wages be satisfied from the contract retainage. Such provisions do not, however, limit an employee’s right to bring an action against the GC, nor waive or release any of the GC’s liability. In other words, while inclusion of such language offers GCs some level of protection against loss, it cannot shield GCs against claims brought by unpaid employees.

Retention of Service Contract Workers 

Effective July 1, 2027, entities that take over certain service contracts at covered locations, contract out covered services, or receive property in a sale or transfer (“successor employers”) must retain covered service contract employees for at least 90 days. For example, if an office building utilizes a cleaning contractor, and they replace that cleaning contractor with a different cleaning contractor, the new contractor would be required to retain all the prior cleaning contractor employees for a period of 90 days, so long as each employee had worked 16 hours per week for at least 60 days during the previous 90 days. 

The retention requirement applies to employers with two or more employees that operate in certain industries, including: higher educational facilities, multifamily residential buildings with 50 or more units, commercial centers, complexes or office buildings occupying more than 75,000 square feet, cultural centers or complexes, including museums, convention centers, arenas or performance halls, banks, shopping malls, warehouses or distribution centers, airports, and train stations.

The Act also requires the awarding authority² to provide at least 15 days’ advance written notice of the termination or nonrenewal, start of the successor contract, or property sale or transfer to the terminated contactor, including contact information of the successor contractor. The terminated contractor has three days to provide the successor contractor with the name, date of hire and job classification of each covered employee. Written offers to those employees must be provided by the successor contractor by the later of five days prior to the termination of the original service contract or 15 days prior to the start of the successor contract.  

Covered service employees cannot be terminated during the 90-day retention period absent just cause. However, the successor employer may terminate employees whose attendance and performance records while working under the terminated service contract would lead a reasonably prudent employer to terminate the employee. Moreover, if a successor employer determines that fewer employees are required to perform the work, the employer must retain such required employees by seniority within each job classification, based on the employees’ total length of service at the affected site(s). Employees who are not retained must be placed on a preferential hiring list and be recalled if additional employees are necessary.

After the 90-day retention period ends, the successor employer must provide each retained employee with a written performance evaluation. If the employee’s performance is deemed satisfactory, the successor employer must offer continued employment either on the same terms and conditions the employee previously had, or any modified terms required by law.

Employees who are displaced or terminated in violation of this law may file a complaint with the labor commissioner or bring a private civil action. Penalties for noncompliance include back pay and lost benefits, reinstatement, compensatory damages, and attorney’s fees and costs. The labor commissioner may also direct the attorney general to bring an action in Superior Court seeking damages, injunctive relief, or other equitable remedies on behalf of affected employees.

Healthcare

Direct Care Services Employee Access to Virtual Monitoring Evidence

Under the Act, employees of nonprofit organizations and contractors who provide direct care services to individuals enrolled in programs administered by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) or the Department of Social Services (DSS) have a right to review virtual monitoring data relied upon as evidence in proposed disciplinary action against them. Labor organizations representing those employees can also obtain such evidence. This right is limited to evidence used in a proposed disciplinary action, not any further recordings.

Virtual monitoring data is defined as remote monitoring of an individual providing direct care services by technology owned and operated by the care recipient in their home. Employees (and/or their union representative) can request access to that evidence so long as they: (1) agree to sign a confidentiality agreement approved by the DDS or DSS; (2) treat any recordings or images obtained as confidential; and (3) refrain from replicating, reproducing, or further disseminating the evidence obtained.

The Act does not curtail employers’ use of virtual monitoring data, nor does it require employers to provide such evidence absent a request. However, to the extent an employer relies on virtual monitoring data to discipline an employee, it should be prepared to provide that data to the employee and representative upon request and execution of an approved confidentiality agreement. 

DDS and DSS are directed to implement policies and procedures to carry out these provisions by July 1, 2027, and to ensure that granting access to virtual monitoring evidence does not violate HIPAA or any other federal or state law.

Hospital Staffing Committees and Nurse Staffing Plans 

In 2024, Connecticut adopted legislation requiring hospitals to provide the State Department of Public Health biannually a prospective nurse staffing plan, including written certification that the developed plan is sufficient to provide adequate and appropriate delivery of health care services to patients for the covered period. The Act amends the statute to require the Department of Public Health Commissioner, in consultation with an organization that represents hospitals in the state, to create a report regarding the number of variations from the nurse staffing plans that hospitals are required by law to develop. 

The report must include the number of times a hospital-wide variation from the nurse staffing plan occurred and the number of times there was unit variance from the nurse staffing plans by a hospital. The commissioner must submit the report no later than January 1, 2027, to the Public Health and Labor and Public Employees Committees. 

Enhanced Workers’ Compensation Benefits for Health Care Providers and Teachers Assaulted at Work

Under Connecticut’s Workers’ Compensation Act, employees injured in the course of employment are generally eligible to receive wage replacement benefits equal to approximately 75% of their average weekly wage, subject to a cap. 

The Act expands workers' compensation benefits for teachers, health care providers and related employees by providing enhanced benefits if they are unable to work as a result of having been “physical[ly] or negligent[ly]” assaulted in the performance of their duties. The new law is essentially a salary continuation benefit, entitling these employees to 100% of their average weekly wage, without a cap on the benefit amount, for periods of partial or total incapacity due to the assault. Reasonably incurred expenses for medical and other services resulting from the assault, as well as lost wages due to their attendance for court appearances related to the assault, are also covered. Further, such absences cannot be charged against the employee’s PTO. 

Health care providers are defined broadly to include employees and volunteers of a “health care facility or institution” who have direct patient care or patient/family contact responsibilities. “Health care facility or institution” is defined under the statute to include hospitals, nursing homes, home health care agencies, urgent care, medical offices, student infirmaries and other facilities. State-operated facilities, with the exception of UConn Health Center, are excluded. Covered teachers and other educational employees are also defined broadly. 

The statute does not define “physical or negligent assault,” so the nature of employer conduct that will trigger these statutory provisions, including whether intent is a necessary element, are unclear. When enhanced benefits apply may need to be clarified through litigation or future amendment.

Statutory indemnification provisions that previously saved teachers and other education personnel assaulted in the line of duty from financial loss and expenses not covered by workers’ compensation or other insurance have been repealed.³  

Disability Accommodations 

ADA Posting and Notice Requirements 

Effective October 1, 2026, the Connecticut Department of Labor will be required to post information in English and Spanish about the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on its website, including the definition of disability and how it relates to reasonable accommodation obligations. The notice must be available for download by employers for posting at their places of business. 

Further, employers will be required to provide written notice of the right to reasonable accommodation to existing employees within 120 days of October 1, 2026 (January 29, 2027) and thereafter to new employees upon hire. Employers must also provide such notice within 10 days after an employee notifies the employer of their disability. The DOL Commissioner is authorized to adopt regulations imposing additional requirements regarding methods of employee notice. 

As currently written, an employee does not have to request accommodation, but only advise their employer of a disability, to trigger the notice requirement. It is unclear whether the employer’s obligation is triggered where the employee’s disability may be readily observable without communication from the employee. It is likely that the DOL will provide additional guidance concerning this through regulation.

Expansion of Lactation Accommodations 

Connecticut significantly expanded its lactation accommodation law in 2021, mandating that all employers make reasonable efforts to provide a private, sanitary location for employees to breastfeed or express milk during their meal or break periods.

The new law expands the 2021 amendments, requiring employers to provide reasonable break times – not limited to an employee’s regular meal or break periods – to breastfeed or express milk. 

Conclusion

Public Act 26‑12 represents the most comprehensive overhaul of Connecticut’s workplace laws in recent years, imposing significant compliance burdens upon employers across industries. While not every provision will affect every workplace, the Act’s breadth demands early review and proactive planning. Connecticut employers should determine which provisions apply to their operations, update policies and practices as needed, and consult with labor and employment counsel to ensure compliance with the full gamut of this wide‑ranging law.