Lamont, Bysiewicz Speak To Importance Of Minimum Wage Increases, Support HRA

By Dean Wright, The Bristol Press

July 11, 2022

With national economic pressure continuing to put Connecticut families in ever tougher situations, Gov. Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz Friday spoke about the importance of Connecticut minimum wage raises and support of organizations like the Human Resources Agency of New Britain in providing social, educational and financial assistance to families.

“We got it done in Connecticut,” Lamont said.

In 2018, the lieutenant governor said Democrat candidates campaigned on the idea of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. In 2019, legislation was signed by Lamont incrementally increasing the wage several times over a period of five years. Minimum wage was raised to $11 in October 2019, then $12 September 2020, $13 in August 2021 and then $14 the beginning of July, this year. On June 1, 2023, the minimum will reach $15.

After January 2024, minimum wage is slated to be indexed with the employment cost index determined by the U.S. Department of Labor.

“To us, it’s so important because for so long wages were stagnant and holding a lot of families back,” Bysiewicz said. “We know that uplifted 170,000 families that were headed by female breadwinners. A lot of people think minimum wage is something teenagers make. It’s not. It’s what so many families, particularly women as heads of households, make.”

Eight years ago, Lamont said that former president Barack Obama was at Central Connecticut State University and said Americans deserved a raise.

“We believe more than ever that America needs a raise and we’ve gotten them a raise over the last three years,” Lamont said. “We wouldn’t be able to staff HRA unless people were earning a little bit more in order to compete and pay them a livable salary.”

HRA Executive Director Dr. Marlo Greponne said the agency had worked to raise its wages pre-pandemic, but with the onset of covid, it amplified wage issues and the nonprofit organization had to accelerate its wage increases to attract workers.

“We've just met the $15 mark on July 1 and we continue to have vacancies,” she said. “We’ve got 50 vacancies we’re unable to fill because we’re competing with other sectors that are able to pay more, faster.”

Because the organization is a nonprofit, Greponne noted HRA had to raise funds sustainably and in certain ways so that the group could offer wages to prospective employees. She said HRA was grateful for the efforts of legislators and those in the governor’s office.

“It’s so important that they did put this in place, that in a sense raises the mark for us to meet,” the executive director said. “But, unfortunately, the conditions made it so that the mark failed for us. So we actually had to surpass the mark and this is difficult for us to achieve because everyone else is still working to meet that $15 range, next year. We’re in a really tough pickle when it comes to the employer sector.”

In attempts to help families the most in need in Connecticut, state government enacted a $600 million tax cut package and part of that is a child tax rebate, Bysiewicz said.

“Any family with children, from infants all the way up to 18, gets a $250 per child tax rebate up to three kids, “ she added. “If you have three children in that age range, that’s $750 that you can get at the end of July, beginning of August.”

Families have to apply through the Department of Revenue Services website by July 31. State officials estimate around 150,000 families qualify, however, half that number has registered for the program. Bysiewicz noted HRA was one of the community partners helping to get the information about the program out.

According to HRA information, the organization has assisted 6,244 individuals with finances over the past year. The nonprofit provides a variety of services seeking to improve the economic self-sufficiency of its clients. The organization services New Britain, Bristol, Burlington, Farmington, Plainville and Plymouth. HRA provides services to assist in employment training, child education, housing, energy, health and more.