Connecticut restaurant labor laws

Connecticut: overtime after 40h a week, $16.94 minimum wage, 30-min meal break after 7.5h, night limits for minors. Every figure sourced.

The figures ShiftNivo schedules against in Connecticut, read from the source linked at the bottom of this page.

Updated October 17, 2026

Start with Connecticut's rules loaded →No credit card. Free during early access.

Overtime

Daily: No separate rule*
Weekly: after 40h · 1.5×
Double time: No separate rule*

Rest between shifts: No separate rule*
Eating period: 30 min after 7.5h
Minimum wage: $16.94since 2026-07-01
Default time zone: America/New_York

* “No separate rule” means the engine does not enforce one here. That is not the same as saying the jurisdiction has none.

Public holidays · 11

A public holiday carries no statutory premium for a private employer under federal law, so these are shown as observed days. Eleven federal holidays are assigned to every state, with a few recognized state holidays added; a state's own full list is not complete here.

Christmas DayDecember 25
Columbus Daysecond Monday in October
Independence DayJuly 4
JuneteenthJune 19
Labor Dayfirst Monday in September
Memorial Daylast Monday in May
Martin Luther King Jr. Daythird Monday in January
New Year's DayJanuary 1
Presidents' Daythird Monday in February
Thanksgivingfourth Thursday in November
Veterans DayNovember 11

Youth hours

The bands the product checks for Connecticut. United States figures come from the Department of Labor — its state table as published on 15 July 2025, or its federal rules — and are corrected from the state's own source where the table is wrong. Permits, supervision and exemptions sit underneath every band, and each one says what is not checked. Confirm with the state before relying on them.

Under 14
Not permitted
Federal floor. 14 is the minimum age for most non-agricultural work.
Ages 14 to 15
Non-school day
8h
Week
40h
Not between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
June 1 to Labor Day: not after 9 p.m.
The hours apply during school vacations of five days or more; Connecticut otherwise restricts which work a minor may do at all. The evening limit moves to 9 p.m. outside the school year. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.
Ages 16 to 17
School day
6h
Non-school day
8h
School week
32h
Week
48h
Not between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Restaurant figures. Connecticut sets different hours per industry, and midnight applies during a school vacation or before a non-school day. Connecticut's statute sets no days limit for restaurants (C.G.S. 31-18; its six-day limit, 31-13, is for shops), but the state Department of Labor's guidance lists six days a week for restaurant minors in weeks without school and for those not enrolled, which is not checked here. Figures as published by the US Department of Labor on 15 July 2025. Confirm them with your state labor department.

Source: dol.gov/agencies/whd/youthrules · dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/child-labor

Minors →

What ShiftNivo checks for you here

Overtime after 40 hours in a week, priced as you build, with a warning four hours before anyone crosses it.
A shift longer than 7.5 hours without its 30-minute eating period.
Workers under 18: the minimum age, the hours in a day and in a week, and the evening limit, read from a birth date and marked as errors, not warnings.
11 public holidays, each flagged the week before it arrives.
Everywhere: double bookings, approved time off, and shifts outside the hours someone said they can work.

Start with Connecticut's rules loaded →

Next door

The rules one border over, for a second location or a team that crosses it.

The federal standard: Federal (FLSA) →All 66 jurisdictions →

This is reference data, not legal advice.

Every figure on this page was read from the source linked beside it and carries the date it took effect. Minimum wages are indexed once or twice a year in most jurisdictions — usually on 1 April or 1 October — so this table is reviewed on a schedule rather than when somebody notices.

Employment standards change, and a restaurant's obligations depend on facts no software can see: an exemption, a collective agreement, a municipal ordinance, the particular job somebody does. Some rules are deliberately not modeled, and where that is true this page says which.

Treat these figures as a starting point. Confirm them against the source before relying on them for pay, and take advice about your own situation.

Found something wrong? Corrections get fixed first. hello@shiftnivo.com

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