CONNECTICUT’S NOVEL WAY TO KILL JOBS AND TAX EMPLOYERS

The down side of mandated wages

The state of Connecticut may be embarking on new territory as they seem to be pushing a rather creative way to extract revenue from for-profit businesses.

The state legislature of Connecticut has proposed what’s commonly referred to as SB1044. Muddled in the labyrinth known as legal terminology, we find this gem of a sentence in the bill itself:

Any covered employer that employs, or whose franchisee employs, any employee (1) who was listed on such covered employer’s or such franchisee’s payroll for at least ninety calendar days prior to the completion of the most recent calendar quarter, and (2) whose wages paid by such covered employer, or such covered employer’s franchisee, during such quarter were less than or equal to fifteen dollars per hour, shall pay a fee to the Labor Commissioner for each such employee. Such fee shall be assessed quarterly and shall be equal to one dollar for each hour such employee worked for such covered employer during the previous quarter. Such fee shall not accrue until January 1, 2016.

“Covered employers” apparently includes for-profit businesses that include 500 or more employees, because of course the legislators don’t want to be seen as hurting small businesses. But the fact that they even created the 500-employee minimum is a de facto admission that the firms that are affected by this bill will feel at least somenegative impact.

More