Connecticut Paystub Generator

Reading a Connecticut pay stub, line by line

A Connecticut pay stub is unusual in one good way: the state tax line is the same math as your tax return. The Department of Revenue Services publishes no percentage method — employers run a 16-step calculation (Tables A–E) that reproduces the CT-1040 schedule, so what is withheld all year is close to what you owe. Here is what each line means in 2026:

CT State Income Tax ("CT State Tax", "CT W/H", "CT SIT"). Connecticut has seven brackets from 2% to 6.99% for single filers: 2% on the first $10,000 of taxable income, 4.5% to $50,000, 5.5% to $100,000, 6% to $200,000, 6.5% to $250,000, 6.9% to $500,000, and 6.99% above that. The bottom two rates were cut from 3% and 5% for tax year 2024 and after (PA 23-204), and DRS confirms the 2026 withholding tables are unchanged from 2025. There is no standard deduction. Instead you get a $15,000 personal exemption that shrinks by $1,000 for every $1,000 of income over $30,000 (gone at $44,000), and a personal tax credit worth a percentage of your tax — 75% just above $15,000, 10% from $33,300 to $60,000, and 0% above $64,500. Your employer picks all of this up from the one letter you enter on Form CT-W4: Code F is the single filer's code; Code E means no withholding (single with gross income of $15,000 or less); Code D is maximum withholding with no exemption or credit — and it is what your employer must use if you never file a CT-W4.

The add-backs hidden inside the same line. Above $56,500 of income, the 2% starter bracket is phased out: CT adds $25 for every $5,000 (or part) over $56,500, up to $250 at $101,500 — at which point your first $10,000 is effectively taxed at 4.5%. Two "benefit recapture" add-backs follow: $25 per $5,000 over $105,000 (max $250) and $90 per $5,000 over $200,000, with a further $50 per $5,000 over $500,000. The combined maximum for a single filer is $3,400, reached around $540,000 — the point where every dollar is effectively taxed at 6.99%. None of this appears as a separate line; it is folded into the CT tax figure (Tables C and D of the withholding rules).

CT Paid Leave ("CT PL", "CTPL", "CT PFML" — Box 14 on your W-2). The only state program line on a Connecticut stub: 0.5% of wages up to the Social Security wage base of $184,500, so a maximum of $922.50 in 2026 (the cap is 0.5% × the base; the CT Paid Leave Authority publishes the rate and the wage limit, not a dollar figure). The Board voted to keep the rate at 0.5% for 2026. It is taken after tax, there is no employer match, and employers with an approved private plan may deduct the same or a lower rate — so a smaller CTPL line is not necessarily a mistake.

What you will NOT see in Connecticut: a city, town, or county income tax (none exists anywhere in the state, and Connecticut has no county governments); an employee unemployment insurance deduction (employer-only — the 2026 taxable wage base is $27,000, paid entirely by the employer); a state disability insurance line (Connecticut has no state disability program); or a flat supplemental rate on bonuses and commissions — supplemental pay is withheld as if it were regular wages, or by the incremental method if paid separately.

Plus the federal lines on every US stub: federal income tax, Social Security (6.2% up to $184,500 in 2026), and Medicare (1.45%, plus 0.9% on wages over $200,000).

Connecticut paycheck facts — 2026

What you actually take home in Connecticut (2026 estimates)

Estimated for a single filer, including federal income tax (after the $16,100 standard deduction), Social Security, Medicare, Connecticut state tax on the return basis (statutory brackets after the phased-out $15,000 personal exemption, the 2% phase-out and recapture add-backs, and the personal tax credit — Withholding Code F), and the 0.5% CT Paid Leave contribution. No local tax exists, so no local line is included:

Where the money goes at $60,000: Connecticut state tax $2,317.50 — 3.9% of gross — plus $300 of CT Paid Leave. The state figure is $2,000 + 5.5% of the $10,000 over $50,000 ($2,550), plus the $25 phase-out add-back, times 0.90 because the 10% personal credit still applies at exactly $60,000. Earn $500 more and the credit drops to 9%; at $64,500 it is gone. Federal income tax and FICA take the other 16%.

The exemption cliff: at $30,000 the full $15,000 exemption applies and the state tax is just $361.25 after the 15% credit. A worker at the full-time minimum wage ($35,235) has already lost $6,000 of the exemption and pays about $838 — the personal exemption is worth the most to the lowest earners and disappears entirely at $44,000.

Methodology: 2026 federal brackets and $16,100 standard deduction (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32), FICA per SSA, Connecticut Income Tax per CGS §§ 12-700, 12-702, 12-703 using DRS Tables A–E for Withholding Code F (TPG-211, effective January 1, 2026; identical to the 2025 CT-1040 Tax Calculation Schedule), CT Paid Leave at 0.5% of wages to $184,500 (CT Paid Leave Authority; CGS § 31-49g). The 2026 Form CT-1040 has not been published; DRS confirms the 2026 tables are unchanged from 2025 and no rate or bracket change was enacted in the 2026 session. Estimates only — your withholding depends on your CT-W4 code, Line 2/Line 3 adjustments, other income, credits, and pre-tax benefits.

What Connecticut jobs pay (BLS, May 2025)

Connecticut's median hourly wage across all occupations is $28.70 — 17% above the national median of $24.51, and the median annual wage is $59,690, which puts the typical full-time worker almost exactly at the $60,000 point where the 10% personal credit is about to run out. A registered nurse at the state median ($102,740) has crossed into the 6% bracket and the full $250 phase-out add-back, and pays about $5,164 in state tax — 5.0% of gross.

Connecticut's workforce in numbers

• 3.7 million residents, civilian labor force of 1.9 million, unemployment 5.2% (Census 2025 estimate; BLS, July 2026 preliminary)
• 326,020 self-employed (nonemployer) businesses (Census, 2023) — about one for every 11 residents, and 3.7 times the number of businesses with employees
• 1.5 million people on employer payrolls at 89,234 establishments, earning $117.6 billion a year (Census County Business Patterns, 2023)
• Mean annual wage: $77,420 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)

Connecticut pay rules — the answers people actually need

Final paycheck: fired means next business day; quit means next payday. CGS § 31-71c(b) requires an employer that discharges you to pay all wages in full "not later than the business day next succeeding the date of such discharge." If you quit, wages are due by the next regular payday, through the normal payment channel or by mail (§ 31-71c(a)); the same next-payday rule applies if you are laid off or suspended by a labor dispute. Where any amount is disputed, the employer must still pay the undisputed portion on time, and accepting it does not release your claim to the rest (§ 31-71d). Unpaid-wage claims go to the Department of Labor's Wage and Workplace Standards Division.

Pay frequency: weekly or every two weeks on a regular payday designated in advance (§ 31-71b). The pay period may end no more than 8 days before payday, and if payday falls on a non-work day you are paid the preceding work day. Semimonthly or monthly pay is legal only with a waiver from the Labor Commissioner, which requires that every affected employee is paid in full at least once each calendar month (§ 31-71i) — many Connecticut employers pay semimonthly under such a waiver. Payment may be by cash, check, direct deposit at your written or electronic request, or a payroll card that meets the § 31-71k conditions.

Is a pay stub required? Yes. With every wage payment, CGS § 31-13a requires a written record — or an electronic one if you explicitly consent — of hours worked, gross earnings showing straight time and overtime as separate entries, itemized deductions, and net earnings. The straight-time/overtime split is the detail most generic stubs miss, and it is in the statute. Employees exempt from overtime and time-record rules need not be shown hours. For electronic stubs the employer must give you a secure, private, and convenient way to access and print the record (added by PA 16-125). Deductions are allowed only when required by law, authorized by you on a Commissioner-approved form, for medical or hospital coverage, or for automatic-enrollment retirement contributions such as MyCTSavings (§ 31-71e).

Minimum wage: $16.94 in 2026, $17.48 from January 1, 2027. Connecticut indexes its minimum wage to the Employment Cost Index, not the CPI: each October 15 the Labor Commissioner announces the next January 1 rate based on the ECI change for wages and salaries over the twelve months ending the prior June 30 (§ 31-58(i)). The 2026 increase of $0.59 reflected a 3.6% ECI rise; the 2027 rate of $17.48 reflects 3.2%. There is no small-employer, seasonal, or training tier. Tipped cash wages are fixed in statute — $6.38 an hour for hotel and restaurant service employees, $8.23 for bartenders — and have not moved since 2019 while the minimum wage rose from $11 to $16.94, so the tip credit is now $10.56 an hour for waitstaff (62.98% of $16.94). Other industries may take at most a $0.35 tip credit.

Commuters and reciprocity. Connecticut has no reciprocal agreement with any state. A Connecticut resident working in New York, Massachusetts, or Rhode Island still has Connecticut withholding — reduced by the tax withheld for the work state — and claims a credit for taxes paid to that jurisdiction on the return (§ 12-704). Nonresidents working in Connecticut are withheld on their Connecticut-source wages only, using Form CT-W4NA.

Bonuses and commissions. Connecticut has no flat supplemental withholding rate. If a bonus is paid with your regular wages, the employer withholds on the combined amount as one payment; if it is paid separately, the employer calculates tax on regular plus supplemental pay, subtracts what was already withheld on the regular wages, and withholds the difference (Circular CT, IP 2026(1)).

No local income taxes and no local minimum wages in Connecticut

Connecticut is one of the simplest states in the country for local payroll: no city, town, or county levies an income or payroll tax. Municipalities' revenue authority is essentially limited to the property tax, the state has no county governments, and the only bill proposing a local income tax since 1991 (HB 6843 in 1997) died in committee. Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, and Waterbury all have a 0% local rate, so the statewide take-home table above applies to every address in the state.

The same is true of minimum wage: the $16.94 statewide rate is preempted from local variation, so a full-time job at minimum wage grosses the same $35,235 in Greenwich as in Windham. The single 2026 wrinkle on a Connecticut stub is CT Paid Leave, and that too is one statewide rate — 0.5% — with the only variation coming from employers whose approved private plan deducts less.

How Connecticut compares with its neighbors (take-home on $60,000, 2026 est.)

Connecticut's 3.9% state bite at $60,000 sits in the middle of its neighbors: the phased-out exemption and the 10% personal credit keep the middle-income figure moderate, while the 6.99% top rate plus $3,400 of benefit recapture make it one of the steeper states for high earners. Remember that a Connecticut resident commuting into New York or Massachusetts pays the work state first and takes a credit on the Connecticut return — there is no reciprocity.

(The Rhode Island figure is a directional estimate pending that page's full data workup.)

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