Local employers brace for 2026 minimum wage increase

A steady stream of patrons kept bartender Ted Bremmer busy during a recent Saturday afternoon at Norbrook Farm Brewery in Colebrook.
Debra A. Aleksinas


A steady stream of patrons kept bartender Ted Bremmer busy during a recent Saturday afternoon at Norbrook Farm Brewery in Colebrook.
Business owners in the Northwest Corner are preparing for another mandated wage hike as Connecticut’s minimum wage is set to increase to $16.94 an hour beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the latest adjustment under the state’s automatic cost-of-living formula.
The raise — up from the current $16.35 per hour — marks another step in Connecticut’s plan to link wage increases directly to inflation and employer labor-cost trends.
While workers facing rising housing costs and growing grocery costs applaud the wage hike, business owners across the region are bracing for extra pressure, especially in sectors where profit margins are already razor thin.“It certainly is a struggle,” said John Auclair, owner of Norbrook Farm Brewery in Colebrook. “It’s tough for us to pass those costs along because we are in a competitive industry.”
Auclair said while he supports fair wages, the cumulative impact of higher labor costs has forced him to make difficult business decisions.
“The solution? You cut back on hiring and do more yourself. Unfortunately, you can’t always give your customers the best service. We’ve had to do with fewer servers and fewer employees.”
Norbrook Farm Brewery currently employs about eight full-time workers and 25 part-time employees, many of whom are tipped staff, which allows the business to offset minimum wage rules in that category.
The rising cost of living
Labor advocates argue that raising the minimum wage is necessary given Connecticut’s high cost of living. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a living wage for a single adult with one child in Connecticut exceeds $36 per hour, well above the new minimum.
Chris Exum, a maintenance worker at McDonalds in Winsted for the past eight years, said minimum wage hikes make little impact due to soaring living expenses.
“Everything keeps going up also. Groceries are up, gas is up, rent. I am barely staying afloat, and rarely take time off,” Exum said.
Bottom-line pressure
Kendra Chapman, proprietor of The Black Rabbit Bar & Grille in Lakeville, said rising wages are adding to a difficult cost-environment.
“Every year it seems like it’s getting tougher,” she explained. “We’re losing money this year where we haven’t before. We were always able to bank and save money for the winter months.”
The impact also extends to nonprofits.
At the Housatonic Child Care Center in Salisbury, Director Tonya Roussis said the upcoming wage hike could further squeeze childcare providers already struggling to balance affordability for families with fair pay for teachers.
“We start at minimum wage, increasing on the first anniversary,” said Roussis. “To compensate, we add the cost to our annual budget and do more fundraising and writing grants.”
Currently, several of her eight full-time teachers earn between $17 and $18 hourly.
Ripple-effects of wage hikes
Economists say Connecticut’s continued wage hikes, though designed to keep pace with inflation, can trigger ripple-effects across the business landscape: higher payroll costs may lead to price increases, reduced hiring or shorter shifts for workers.
At just a hair under $17 an hour, the upcoming minimum wage hike has David Hall, Jr., owner of Hall’s Garage in West Cornwall “nervous about adding someone on” should his business undergo a slowdown.
“It’s gotten to the point where if somebody young and inexperienced wants to get their foot in the door, we can’t afford to pay them at that rate.”
Norbrook Farm’s Auclair said he understands the worker perspective but hopes policymakers recognize the pressure on small business owners competing in the marketplace.
Automatic adjustment system
Connecticut is one of only a handful of states that automatically adjusts its minimum wage each year, based on changes in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment Cost Index (ECI), a measure of hourly employer labor-cost changes including wages and benefits.
The indexing approach was adopted by the legislature in 2019 to kick in after the minimum wage reached $15; the first indexed increase took effect in 2024. Under the policy, future increases will reflect the percentage change in the ECI for the 12-month period ended June 30 of the prior year. The 2026 increase to $16.94 corresponds to the latest ECI rise of about 3.6% over the period.
Supporters say the system provides predictability for both workers and employers while critics say it lacks flexibility for businesses in weaker economic cycles.
In making the wage hike announcement in early September, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) said the increase is necessary. “Nobody who works full-time should have to live in poverty. This is a fair, modest increase, and the money earned will go right back into our own economy, supporting local businesses in our communities.”
According to the Current Population Survey, as calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 60% of minimum wage earners in Connecticut are women and people of color.
Doing right by workers
“I want to pay my employees fairly,” stressed the Black Rabbit Bar & Grille’sChapman. “But the bigger problem is the cost of living.”
Norbrook Farm Brewery’s Auclair said he, too, sympathizes with employees making minimum or above minimum hourly wage. “I don’t know how young families are making it, living in the state of Connecticut.”
Aly Morrissey & Christian Murray
A Life Star helicopter lands on the front lawn of Housatonic Valley Regional High School on Saturday, May 16, to transport a motorcycle crash victim to a hospital.
LIME ROCK — A motorcycle crash involving a car temporarily shut down a section of Route 112 near the intersection with Route 7 on Saturday afternoon, drawing a large emergency response and prompting a Life Star helicopter landing at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.
Emergency responders at the scene confirmed the incident involved a motorcycle and passenger vehicle. Route 7 was closed from Dugway Road to the intersection of Routes 7 and 112 while crews responded.
Life Star arrived at the high school at approximately 2 p.m., where a crowd gathered to watch the helicopter land as the Lakeville-based Blue Studio dance recital was about to begin. The crash victim was transferred from an ambulance to the helicopter shortly after it landed before being transported to Hartford Hospital, according to a member of the Lakeville Hose Company who assisted with the landing.
Fire departments, police and EMS personnel remained on scene during the response.
Connecticut State Police said the crash occurred around 1 p.m. and involved a car and motorcycle, but did not release additional details. A state police spokesperson said the roads reopened quickly and described the injury as minor.
However, Chris Ohmen, a volunteer firefighter with the Lakeville Hose Company who was at the scene, said the “injuries warranted a Life Star transport” and that he was directed to “clear the area and set up a landing zone.”
The incident marks the second serious crash in two days in the area. A van crashed into a utility pole on Route 112 less than 24 hours earlier, causing road closures and traffic delays. The driver of that crash was transported to a hospital with serious injuries.

Christian Murray
Traffic was diverted near Wells Hill Road after a crash closed part of Route 112 Friday afternoon.
A van crashed into a utility pole on Route 112 near Wells Hill Road Friday afternoon, leaving the driver hospitalized in serious condition and forcing the highway to close for several hours.
The crash was reported at approximately 3:20 p.m., according to Connecticut State Police Troop B.
Police said a Ford Transit van struck a utility pole and the driver was transported to a hospital with serious injuries. The identity of the driver and the extent of the injuries had not been released Friday evening.
A second vehicle, a Volkswagen Jetta, veered off the road in an attempt to avoid the crash, according to state police. The driver of the Jetta was not injured.
Route 112 remained closed between Race Track Road and the Route 7/112 intersection into the early evening, according to Troop B, while emergency crews responded and Eversource Energy workers repaired the damaged utility pole.
Millbrook resident Will Doere said he believes he arrived near the scene shortly after the crash occurred. Before official detour signs were posted, an emergency responder was directing traffic at the Hotchkiss Four Corners -- the intersection of routes 112 and 41.
Doere said he was driving from Millbrook to Housatonic Valley Regional High School and was rerouted through Lakeville because of the closure.
“I was taking my daughter to a dress rehearsal for her dance recital and we were delayed because of the road closures,” Doere said. “I hope those involved are OK."
Mary Close Oppenheimer
Renee Wilcox
If you’ve ever wandered through Paley’s Farm Market, you probably know Renee Wilcox. For thirty years, she has been greeting you with unmistakable warmth—always ready with a smile. Renee grew up in Millerton, but it was in Salisbury that her family found something they’d never had before: a true sense of home. In 2003, she and her husband Bill were living in Millerton, but Bill—a volunteer with the Lakeville Hose Company—was already part of Salisbury life. When the Salisbury Housing Trust finished eight new homes on East Main Street (Dunham Drive), Renee and Bill were the first to sign on.
The story of those houses is really a story about the best parts of our community. Richard Dunham and his wife, Inge, along with the Housing Trust board, poured years of energy and hope into the project. Renee can’t help but light up when she talks about the people who helped her family settle in. Digby Brown came by to install appliances and bathroom cabinets; Barbara Niles spent hours painting; Carl Williams assembled bunk beds for the kids. Rick Cantele, at Salisbury Bank, helped them with their finances so they could qualify for a mortgage, while neighbors arrived at their door with fruit baskets and welcoming words.
For the Wilcox family, owning a home in Salisbury changed everything. The house gave them more than just a roof; it was a dream come true. Renee says, “My son—now thirty-three—was slipping through the cracks at school. He is now an avid reader. The schools have made all the difference.” When Bill suffered a serious workplace injury in 2023, the community they’d come to love rallied around them. Local businesses, friends, and neighbors showed up, offering help in big and small ways. “We are so grateful to live in this community,” Renee says, “I can’t even put into words how much it meant to us.”
But not every family is so lucky. Renee hears all the time from people from all walks of life who are upset that their kids can’t afford to live here. The numbers tell a tough story—sky-high home prices, almost no rentals, and over 100 families on a waitlist for an affordable apartment. The result? We have lost a whole generation of young people in our community.
Renee’s story is a reminder that community isn’t just about geography—it’s about making space for each other. If we want to keep that spirit alive, we need to fight for more affordable homes, more welcoming front doors, and more stories like hers.
Mary Close Oppenheimer is a member of the Salisbury Affordable Housing Commission.

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Aly Morrissey
Heavy stone garden ornaments, a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston, at Trade Secrets 2025.
Tucked away on Porter Street in downtown Lakeville, Project SAGE is an unassuming building from a street view. But cross the threshold a week before Trade Secrets — one of the region’s biggest gardening events, long associated with Martha Stewart and glamorous plants of all varieties — and you’ll find a bustling world of employees and volunteers getting ready for the organization’s most important event of the year.
“It’s not usually like this,’ laughed Project SAGE director Kristen van Ginhoven. “But with Trade Secrets just around the corner, it’s definitely like this.”
Van Ginhoven points to towers of boxes containing event programs, various ribbons, elegant decor and stacks of magazines, all in preparation for the event.
Project SAGE will celebrate its 26th year hosting Trade Secrets, but it’s so much more than a garden event.
“It’s a fundraiser for domestic violence prevention and intervention,” van Ginhoven said. “Anybody who attends knows they’re supporting a really meaningful and important cause.”
The fundraiser accounts for at least 30 percent of the organization’s overall budget, she said, and attracts around 3,000 people from across the region each year, creating an unmatched opportunity for Project SAGE to share its mission and generate support.
The event, though expensive to produce, generates enough income to significantly support Project SAGE’s direct services and prevention services.
Officials said a wave of new underwriters have emerged this year.
“We’re very grateful, because we live in a time when funding is uncertain,” van Ginhoven said.
Hundreds of copies of the annual Trade Secrets guide sat at Project SAGE headquarters, ready for distribution at the event. The book doubles as a domestic violence resource, complete with warning signs, myth-busting information and scripts for difficult conversations.
Volunteers will be present throughout the event to connect with community members. Each volunteer must be certified as a domestic violence counselor in order to work with Project SAGE.
“It means they can help us drive clients, move clients, take them to appointments or the grocery store,” van Ginhoven said.
Project SAGE officials said education about domestic violence should start early. The organization has developed a comprehensive curriculum spanning early childhood through grade 12 and visits schools throughout the region. The class of 2026 will be the first graduating class at Housatonic Valley Regional High School to have received all four years of training from Project SAGE.

The organization’s partnerships extend throughout the region and include on-site training in schools and nonprofit organizations, including the Sharon Playhouse. Community support also goes directly to Project SAGE, including a recently donated array of colorful gift bags bearing positing affirmations and filled with toiletries and basic necessities from students at the Frederick Gunn School in Washington, Connecticut.
The people who visit Project SAGE have often left uncomfortable or dangerous situations and leave without any belongings.
“Some of them have nothing,” van Ginhoven said. “They just show up because they had the courage to leave.”
Project SAGE staff say many referrals come through local hospitals, police and sister agencies.
The organization serves people in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
With the stress of event planning mounting, van Ginhoven spent a “previous life” preparing for this exact moment. She spent 30 working at the intersection of arts and activism, having co-founded WAM Theatre, a Lenox-based organization focused on stories and issues affecting those who self-identify as women and girls. During her tenure, WAM donated $100,000 to 25 local and global organizations working toward gender equity in areas such as girls’ education, teen pregnancy prevention, gender-based violence, sexual trafficking awareness and midwife training.
“I love the adrenaline of putting on a show,” van Ginhoven said with a laugh. With the help of volunteers and organizers, she said she isn’t bothered by the stress.
“The show will go on,” she said.
Jennifer Almquist
Caroline Kinsolving and Gary Capozzielo at home in Salisbury with their dogs, Petruchio and Beatrice
"He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly."
Caroline Kinsolving
Actor Caroline Kinsolving and violinist Gary Capozziello enjoy their quiet life with their two dogs in Salisbury, yet are often pulled apart to perform on distant stages in far-flung cities. Currently, the planets have aligned, and both are working in Hartford, across Bushnell Park from one another. Bridgewater native Kinsolving is starring in “Circus Fire,” the current production of TheaterWorks Hartford, while Capozziello is a violinist and assistant concertmaster of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. While Kinsolving hates being away from home, she feels the distance nourishes their relationship.
“We are guardians of each other’s confidence and self-esteem,” she said.
“We met during the pandemic, a bleak time,” Kinsolving said. “On our first date, we met at The Hickory Stick Bookshop and walked outside six feet apart. We fell in love.”
They lived in a tiny studio near Averill Farm in Washington, Connecticut.
“He played his violin, I worked on my lines, we walked the dog, and suddenly we were circling each other perfectly,” Capozziello said with a laugh. “When I told her I was a violinist, she mentioned ‘Appalachian Spring’ by Aaron Copland. I sent her a recording of me playing it, and it became our song.”
“For our wedding, we wanted all our friends and family out in the field listening to that music,” Kinsolving said. Capozziello’s friends from Orchestra New England performed the piece at their wedding.
“Circus Fire,” written by Connecticut’s own Jacques Lamarre and directed by Jared Mezzocchi, is a multimedia world-premiere tribute to the Hartford Circus Fire. On July 6, 1944, the big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus caught fire, killing 167 and injuring 700 in Connecticut’s worst fire disaster.
Capozziello, who grew up in Fairfield, began: “I came from very limited means, though my parents gave me the kind of support that mattered most. I had a hard time in school. My music teachers, noticing my knack for music, kept me in school.” As he became a teenager, he realized how demanding classical violin truly is. “I had the honor of playing in a master class for Isaac Stern when I was 18,” he said. “That was the wake-up call. He was relentless with my intonation, telling me I must ‘feel the fire in my belly.’”
At SUNY Purchase, he “met a wonderful violin teacher who taught me to play, study and practice five hours a day.” After studying at the New England Conservatory, Capozziello earned his doctorate from The Hartt School in 2018. He now teaches at The Hotchkiss School and performs with the Hartford Symphony.
He explained that his role as assistant concertmaster is the direct line between conductor and musicians, and that the orchestra is “a family dynamic, a democratic unit, truly a living, breathing organism.”

On May 2, Capozziello was soloist with Orchestra New England, performing the world premiere of Neely Bruce’s “Concerto for Violin,” along with “The River” by Jan Swafford and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” at Battell Chapel at Yale.
“I care about bringing classical music into communities and spaces where people may not expect it,” said Capozziello.“Music is most powerful to me when it feels alive, humanand accessible, not distant or formal.”
For 20 years, Kinsolving has acted in film, television and theater in London, New York and Los Angeles. “I was first onstage at Washington Montessori School playing Peter Pan,” she said. “I improvised a line, got a laugh and liked the feeling.”
She enjoys performing Shakespeare. “I love Titania’s monologue because it speaks to our current climate crisis. Lady Macbeth surprised me. I fell in love with her while I was doing it. I could play those scenes forever; so much range and depth to explore,” she said.
Kinsolving added, “I love Shakespeare’s comedies for the fun and rhythm. I have loved Rosalind, Viola, Olivia, Helena and Kate, yet the top of my bucket list is Beatrice. Each character reflects a shade of my soul. Shakespeare had the brilliance to illuminate them. If I ever get a tattoo, it will be a list of their names.”
Kinsolving, whose parents, poet Susan Kinsolving and author William Kinsolving, live in Lakeville, studied at Milton Academy, universities in China, and Vassar College. Her theater training includes Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Yale Drama Intensive and she is currently studying online through Juilliard.. She founded Theatre for Good, which donates its proceeds to charity.
Both artists are looking forward to June, when they will have more time to spend with their dogs.
D.H. Callahan
Esther Williams in “Million Dollar Mermaid” (1952).
For decades, Esther Williams was one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but the swimming sensation of the silver screen has largely faded from public memory — a disappearance that intrigued Millerton filmmaker Brian Gersten and inspired him to revisit her legacy.
As a millennial, Gersten grew up largely unaware of Williams’ influential career. His teen years in Chicago were spent with friends who obsessed over movies, spending hours at their local independent video store,and watching anything that caught their eye. Somehow, though, they never ventured into the glossy world of synchronized-swimming musicals of the 1940s and ‘50s.
Gersten’s life changed when he first saw the documentary “Hoop Dreams,” which follows two young Chicago basketball players as they’re groomed and recruited by scouts with hopes of college stardom – and possibly the NBA. These boys grew up just 40 minutes from Gersten’s home, yet their world felt far away. The film’s power pushed him to take his love of movies to the next level.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado, Gersten realized documentaries were his passion. He enrolled at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine before heading to Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where he earned an MFA in documentary film.
Since then, Gersten has made a series of short, often heartwarming documentaries on subjects ranging from pigeon enthusiasts and hollerin’ competitions to the history of bowling in America and even Balloon Boy, the nickname for Falcon Heene, the child at the center of a bizarre media frenzy.
When he’s not making his own films, Gersten often edits and helps structure other projects, including the cycling documentary “Enter the Slipstream” and “Radical Wolfe,” a profile of writer Tom Wolfe.
It was while editing one of these projects that Gersten first encountered Williams.
“Who was this figure? What was going on in these films?” he wondered.
What he learned fascinated him. Williams starred in over 30 movies despite having no formal acting training. A champion swimmer, she made the 1940 U.S. Olympic team, but when the games were canceled because of World War II, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer saw an opportunity.
Studio scouts recruited Williams, and she took to film like a fish to water. Her confidence, athleticism and, crucially for Hollywood, photogenic looks lit up the silver screen. In 1944, “Bathing Beauty” rocketed her to stardom.
For nearly two decades, Williams starred in one or two films a year, including “Million Dollar Mermaid” and “Skirts Ahoy!”. But as Hollywood turned toward grittier fare, synchronized-swimming spectacles fell out of fashion.
Williams stepped away from the camera, and her fame slowly receded — until Gersten stumbled across a clip and dove in.
Gersten’s short documentary, “Hollywood’s Mermaid” (2026) will screen alongside “Bathing Beauty” (1944) at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at The Moviehouse in Millerton. It will also screen later this month at the Berkshire International Film Festival. Tickets are available at themoviehouse.net.

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