New Laws Are Changing Connecticut Employers’ Pay, Accommodation, AI Obligations in ’26/27

Takeaways

• Connecticut’s new law on pay transparency expands employer obligations by requiring wage ranges and benefits in job postings and detailed, multilingual pay code guides.
• Connecticut will ban employment promissory notes for all employers and require workplace accommodation notice, along with clarified rules on lactation breaks.
• Awaiting the governor’s signature is a bill that would regulate AI use in employment decisions, mandating notice, opt-out options, and explanations for adverse decisions.

Related link

• Connecticut Focuses on Up-Front Pay Transparency

Article

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law new requirements on employers to be transparent about pay and pay codes, banning promissory notes for all employers, requiring employers to post notices about reasonable accommodations, and clarifying lactation break requirements.

Further, Gov. Lamont is expected to sign a bill that legislates the use of AI in employment decisions.

This article discusses how the new legislation set to take effect in the coming months will affect employers’ operations and compliance obligations.

Pay and Pay Code Transparency

Effective Oct. 1, 2026, all employers must disclose the wage or wage range, as well as a general description of benefits, in internal or external job postings. (For details of HB 5003, see Connecticut Focuses on Up-Front Pay Transparency.)

Further, employers with at least 100 employees will be required to create an employee guide for pay codes for overtime and the employer’s most commonly used pay differentials, such as shift differentials, on-call pay, hazard pay, holiday pay, and so forth. The guide should include not less than 10 pay codes (if applicable) and be posted on the employer’s website in English, Spanish, and the other most common languages spoken by the employer’s employees. The guide should also include contact information for employees who wish to dispute calculations of hours and pay differentials.

The guide should be posted to the employer’s internal website; however, nothing in the legislation requires an employer to create an internal website if it does not already have one. The address for the internal website should be provided to employees upon hire and with each record of hours worked. An employer may comply with the law by providing a written copy of the guide to an employee upon hire in English and the employee’s primary language.

Employers that use third-party payroll services may comply with the law by referring employees to a compliant guide published by that service provider.

Prohibition of Employment Promissory Notes

Previously, the legislative ban on promissory notes applied only to employers with at least 26 employees. It now applies to all employers.

“Employment promissory note” is defined as any instrument or agreement executed on or after Oct. 1, 2026, that requires an employee to pay the employer, or such employer’s agent or assignee, a sum of money if the employee leaves such employment before the passage of a stated period of time. “Employment promissory note” includes any such instrument or agreement that states such payment of moneys constitutes reimbursement for training previously provided to the employee.

Execution of any employment promissory note on or after Oct. 1, 2026, as a condition of employment, is against public policy and will be void. If, however, the employment promissory note is part of an employment agreement, the invalidity of such note will not affect the other provisions of the agreement.

Exceptions to the prohibition on employment promissory notes will remain valid and in effect. These include:

1. Requiring the employee to repay to the employer any sums advanced to such employee; 
2. Requiring the employee to pay the employer for any property it has sold or leased to such employee; 
3. Requiring educational personnel to comply with any terms or conditions of sabbatical leaves granted by their employers; or 
4. A promissory note entered into as part of a program agreed to by the employer and its employees’ collective bargaining representative.

New Workplace Accommodation Notice Requirements

Like prior legislation regarding notification of pregnancy accommodations, effective Oct. 1, 2026, employers will be required to provide written notice of an employee’s right to reasonable accommodation in the workplace for a disability pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act to:

1. New employees at the commencement of employment;
2. Existing employees within 120 days of Oct. 1, 2026 (by Jan. 29, 2027); and
3. Any employee who notifies the employer of their disability within 10 days of such notification.

Employers may comply with this new provision by displaying a poster created by the labor commissioner in a conspicuous place, accessible to all employees, at the employer’s place of business. The labor commissioner has been authorized to adopt regulations to establish additional requirements concerning how employers must provide such notice.

Amendment to Statute Providing Workplace Accommodations for Lactation

HB 5003 also amended C.G.S. § 31-402 to mandate reasonable break times for an employee to breastfeed or express breast milk for a nursing child beginning Oct. 1, 2026. This amendment expands employer obligations to provide reasonable lactation breaks in addition to allowing employees to breastfeed or nurse during their scheduled breaks as required by current law.

Employers should also consider obligations to provide lactation breaks and accommodations under the federal PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act and Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

Passage of Artificial Intelligence Responsibility and Transparency Act

Finally, the Connecticut Artificial Intelligence Responsibility and Transparency Act (SB 5) would regulate employers’ use of AI in employment decisions. Gov. Lamont is expected to sign SB 5.

Under the Act, “automated employment-related decision processes” are computational processes that generate an output creating a ranking or classification with respect to an employment-related decision. Effective Oct. 1, 2027, employers that choose to deploy such processes must provide notice to employees and applicants who interact with the automated employment-related decision processes, or who are subject to an employment decision by the automated employment-related decision processes. Before the automated employment-related decision process is used to make an employment-related decision, the employee or applicant must be notified:

• That an automated employment-related decision process is being used;
• The purpose for which it is being used;
• How to opt-out of the automated employment-related decision process; and
• How to contact the employer.

Then, if an adverse decision is made against an employee or applicant, the employee or applicant must be provided with:

• A high-level statement of the reasons for the decision; and
• An opportunity to examine and correct any personal data used in the decision-making process that was not provided by the employee or applicant.

Developers of automated employment-related decision processes are required to provide employers with the necessary tools to fulfill these obligations. The Act makes clear that it is not intended to require disclosure of any trade secret.

Further, effective Oct. 1, 2026, using an automated employment-related decision process in a way that causes an employer to make an adverse employment decision against an individual on the basis of an individual’s protected status is a violation of the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act. The use of an automated employment-related decision technology, as defined by the Act, will not be a defense against a complaint alleging a discriminatory practice. The Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities or a court may consider evidence of anti-bias testing or similar proactive efforts to avoid the discriminatory practice, including, but not limited to, the quality, efficacy, recency and scope of such testing or efforts, and the results of such testing or efforts and the response thereto.

The Act has additional provisions with respect to unions, which are effective Oct. 1, 2026. It provides that no artificial intelligence technology may be used to modify or impair:

1. A collective bargaining agreement; 
2. A union’s role as the exclusive representative of the bargaining unit; or 
3. The relationship between the employer and the employee organization.

Jackson Lewis attorneys are available to assist employers with these and other workplace requirements.