NORTH CANAAN — Each summer, Bob Riva looks forward to hiring a half dozen high school students to work the front counters at CA Lindell ACE Hardware.
“I like to bring in those kids from the high school and train them and work with them. They are very cheerful,” as they gain entry-level skills and bring their enthusiasm to the job and to customers, said the Canaan business owner.
But the 4.2% increase in the minimum wage, from $15.69 to $16.35, that went into effect Jan. 1, has reduced the number of summer jobs Riva will be able to offer to students this year.
“We end up getting a lot of kids, but does it make sense to pay someone in high school that large a minimum wage? It comes down to making decisions that you never had to make before,” said Riva.
“You get a little pickier and end up scrutinizing the people you are paying minimum wage to. We want our employees to make a good living, but the kids don’t have a house and are still in school. And for this new minimum wage right now, they’d better be moving, they’d better be doing a good job,” said Riva.
Five minimum wage hikes in four years
In 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont signed Public Act 19-4, which implemented five minimum wage increases over four years’ time, followed by subsequent adjustments tied to the percentage change in the federal Employment Cost Index (ECI).
In making the announcement, Lamont said the new law “ensures that as the economy grows, the wages of low-income workers can grow with it. This is a fair, modest adjustment for workers who will invest their earnings right back into our economy and support local businesses in their communities.”
According to Connecticut Labor Commissioner Dante Bartolomeo, the ECI increased by 4.2% over the 12-month period ending on June 30, 2024, accounting for the 66-cent hourly wage hike on Jan. 1.
“Minimum wage increases help ensure that no Connecticut worker gets left behind,” Bartolomeo said.
From 2022 to 2023, average salaries in Connecticut rose 3.1%, with the state having the fifth-highest average wage in the country, according to the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA).
State officials estimate 10% of the state’s workforce, about 169,000 workers, earn the minimum wage.
More harm than good?
Several Northwest Corner employers described the state’s method for doling out wage increases as burdensome and broken, and that they have little choice but to shift their hiring focus to employees whose productivity levels match the higher minimum wage.
As a result, the most vulnerable, especially those who may lack on-the-job training and have a lower literacy or disability and are most in need of employment, training and experience, will be negatively impacted.
Others are at risk of losing, or have lost important benefits such as health insurance, food and energy assistance, or even affordable housing because their new raises push them over the maximum income limits to qualify for benefits.
Carolyn Piccirelli, founder of Honeychurch Home in Salisbury, said although her business is not affected by the minimum wage hike as all employees are paid above that level, she supports efforts to increase wages.
However, she said she is aware of people who are being bumped off assistance programs because the latest minimum wage hike put them over the maximum income limit.
“What they have to do is find a work-around like reducing their hours” to maintain assistance, said Piccirelli. “As a result, employers have to hire more people.”
Piccirelli, who is expanding and relocating her business to Lenox, Mass., said she is in favor of a higher minimum wage, even though she feels lawmakers were oblivious to the negative impact the raises would have on small businesses.
“I don’t think any minimum wage is enough, frankly,” she noted. “It’s very common for the government to do things and not consider the fallout. The affected small businesses have to be part of the solution,” she said.
Lindell’s Riva had this warning for Connecticut lawmakers: “You are putting a lot of businesses out of business,” as California did when it raised its hourly minimum wage to $20. “Now you have many businesses that can’t make the next payroll and the economy hasn’t been strong.”
A better solution, said Riva, would have been to limit the wage increases only to workers age 21 and older and reserve a lower minimum wage for those ages 16 to 21, giving that younger age group time to gain experience and hone their work skills.
Minimum Wage Threat
According to the nonprofit Employment Policies Institute (EPI), which focuses on issues that affect entry level employment, research shows that raising the minimum wage hurts the least-skilled and least-experienced job seekers the most, “while having little to no effect on poverty rates.”
The EPI noted that a new survey conducted by CorCom Inc., a data management firm, and Carnegie Mellon University asked economists about their reaction to a $15 minimum wage. “It finds that 62 percent of U.S.-based economists oppose a $15 federal minimum wage,” EPI reported.
Three-quarters of respondents (75%) said that a $15 federal minimum wage “would have harmful effects on youth employment levels” and 81 percent of respondents said that a $15 minimum wage would make it more difficult for small businesses to stay in business.
Additionally, research conducted by economists from Miami and Trinity University found that as many as 1.2 million jobs could be lost with a $17 minimum wage
“Sixty-two percent will be among women, and 63 percent will be lost among 16- to 24- year-olds,” EPI reported.
Ryan Craig, owner of the Berkshire Country Store in Norfolk, said the rising minimum wage has negatively impacted his business, as well as some of his workers. Debra A. Aleksinas
‘I can’t be a first job anymore’
On a recent weekday in Norfolk’s quaint business center, Berkshire Country Store owner Ryan Craig greeted vendors, met with customers and assisted his bare-bones staff.
During a quick break, he recalled not so long ago when he had two store locations and 18 employees, 12 of them in Norfolk and a half-dozen in Canaan, which has since closed. Now he has six employees working full- and part-time.
Just days earlier, Berkshire Country Store marked its eighth anniversary, but its owner said he fears for his business’ future, as well as other small businesses in Northwest Corner, with no end in sight to the wage hikes.
“I think small towns are going to be in a world of hurt,” Craig predicted.
“When we opened the minimum wage was less than $10 an hour. That kind of stayed put for a while, and now it is $16.35,” he noted. To survive, the entrepreneur has raised costs and reduced hours of operation and staff. But it’s still a struggle, he said.
Like Riva in Canaan, Craig said he has stopped hiring high school students because “I can’t be a first job anymore.”
The Norfolk business owner said he is not against better pay for workers. He just thinks the system for handing out the raises is broken.
“Look at the cost of living here, and the struggle to find employees. They can’t afford to live in Norfolk,” said Craig, whose current staff commutes from Winsted. “And, soon, they may not be able to afford to live in Winsted.”
“If we are giving them a raise and they do better, that would be one thing. But because of the rising minimum wage, some of them are getting pulled off state benefits. So for that $1 an hour raise, they are now paying $500 a month for insurance, and also the deductibles.”
Craig said he feels like workers are being set up to fail.
“I feel like I’m doing something for the employees that is not helping them. And if it’s not helping me, then who is it helping?
Gus Tripler prepares to jump from the new 36-meter jump.
Satre Hill and SWSA are celebrating their 100th Anniversary of ski jumping in northwest Connecticut this week. As part of this week’s festivities, Salisbury Central School was invited to watch a demonstration of jumping on the 20-meter and the newly installed 36-meter ski jumps.
The event began with Coach Seth Gardner welcoming Salisbury Central School to the jump complex and explaining the sport and training that goes into ski jumping.
Ski jumpers Oona Mascavage and Camden Hubbard assisted Coach Gardner by showing off equipment used in the sport from the oversized skis to the aerodynamic jump suits as well as the proper starting form known as the in-run position.
Salisbury Central School with SWSA jumpers.Dan Hubbard
Then, Willie Hallihan of the SWSA offered students a brief history of ski jumping in Salisbury, tracing the sport’s local roots back a century to when the Satre brothers first launched themselves off a barn before going on to construct the area’s first ski jumping hill. After the history lesson, younger jumpers showed how to begin the sport by skiing down the landing portion of the hill called the outrun.
Jumpers proceeded to show basic jumping from the 20-meter hill, where most beginners start. The event was capped with a demonstration of jumping from the bigger 36-meter hill, where the real flying begins led by one of SWSA's veterans, Gus Tripler.
Willie Halloran of SWSA, Coach Seth Gardner, and ski jumpers Oona Mascavage and Camden Hubbard giving a history of Salisbury ski jumping and equipment demonstration.C Tripler
The SWSA operates one of the oldest ski jumping facilities in the United States and is the home club of 1956 Olympic ski jumper Roy Sherwood and legendary ski jumping coach Larry Stone. The organization has hosted Olympic ski jumpers over the years, including many members of the current U.S. Olympic ski jumping team, now competing in Italy at the Winter Games.
The future of ski jumping at SWSA remains strong, with plans underway to install artificial grass that would allow for summer jumping and year-round training. Islay Sheil, a homegrown jumper, is currently competing on the Junior National Ski Jumping circuit, which includes Olympic-size 100-meter hills.
The 100th anniversary celebrations will continue Feb. 6–8 with Jumpfest, which will feature ski jumping events at Satre Hill in Salisbury.
The jumps at Satre Hill are groomed and ready for launch of the 100th annual Jumpfest Feb. 6 to 8.Photo by Lans Christensen
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PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: Equal Housing Opportunity. All real estate advertised in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1966 revised March 12, 1989 which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color religion, sex, handicap or familial status or national origin or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All residential property advertised in the State of Connecticut General Statutes 46a-64c which prohibit the making, printing or publishing or causing to be made, printed or published any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the sale or:rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, marital status, age, lawful source of income, familial status, physical or mental disability or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.
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Antonio Alcalá
As part of the Norfolk Economic Development Commission’s campaign to celebrate the Norfolk Post Office and the three women who run it — Postmaster Michelle Veronesi and mother-and-daughter postal clerks Kathy Bascetta and Jenna Brown — the EDC has invited USPS art director and stamp designer Antonio Alcalá for a visit.
Postage stamps designed by Antonio Alcalá.Provided
On Sunday, Feb. 8, at 3 p.m., the Virginia-based designer will give a talk at the Norfolk Library titled “The Art of the Postage Stamp.” The free talk is open to the public, with a reception following. Reservations are required: norfolklibrary.org.
On Saturday, Feb. 7, at 10:30 a.m., there will be a Children’s Valentine Stamp Workshop with Alcalá and children’s librarian Eileen Fitzgibbons. The workshop is open to children ages 6–14 (limit 14; registration required at norfolklibrary.org). The invitation: “Come create a stamp you love!”
Provided
Ann Havemeyer, executive director of the Norfolk Library, said, “It’s always fun to see the new stamps issued by the USPS and learn more about the process of bringing a stamp to life. Antonio Alcalá will speak about the history of stampmaking, the design elements involved, and his own journey that brought him to this work.”
Alcalá is the founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. He lectures at schools including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, the School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute and the Maryland Institute College of Art. His work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an American Institute of Graphic Arts Fellow. He serves on Poster House museum’s CMYK Council and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s advisory council. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design. Alcalá earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and an MFA in graphic design from the Yale School of Art. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife and Studio A partner, Helen McNeill.
Provided
The Brookings Institution recently stated that “two and a half centuries after its founding, the Postal Service’s universal service mission continues to support local economic life, particularly in rural areas where stable, place-based infrastructure remains central to small-business activity.” Members of the Norfolk Economic Development Commission agree: “The Norfolk Post Office plays a unique and essential role in town life. Beyond its core function, it serves as a daily point of connection for residents and businesses and is a critical piece of local infrastructure that supports commerce, communication and community.”
