The beginning of a new year will bring many things to Connecticut: longer days, another season of state lawmakers debating and passing bills and a slew of new policies taking effect.
New laws typically take effect Jan. 1, July 1, and Oct. 1 every year.
As cost of living challenges continue to take center stage at the state and national level going into 2026, a long-term affordable housing policy will take effect. Other laws address transparency at Connecticut’s correctional facilities and insurance coverage for certain medical conditions.
Here are more details about those new state laws in effect Jan. 1.
New minimum wage
A new year means another increase for Connecticut’s hourly minimum wage, as required by a 2019 state law. The amount must be $16.94 per hour, up from $16.35 in 2025.
Back in 2019, the minimum wage was $10.10. Under the law, from 2019 and 2023 that amount increased incrementally to $15, and the increases since then have been tied to the U.S. Department of Labor’s employment cost index.
According to MIT’s living wage calculator, the living wage an individual without children in Connecticut has to make working full-time to afford basic needs is $25.28 an hour.
Changes to housing policies
Many parts of a major housing law that passed in the recent special legislative session go into effect in the new year.
This comes as the state’s homeless service providers say the number of unhoused people continues to rise in both Connecticut and the nation for the fourth year in a row.
Under the law, the state bans what’s known as “hostile architecture” in public spaces. That includes designs such as arm rails between benches that keep people from sleeping there.
By Jan. 1, Connecticut towns must submit plans to increase the amount of housing in their zip
code, including goals for the units they will add and the zoning that’s required. The law also increases the number of fair rent commissions in the state.
A separate new law creates an approval process for the installation of solar panels on condo roofs of single-family units, and prohibits enforcement of any community bylaws that “unreasonably restrict” solar panels. The owner of the solar panels is also responsible for any cost, under the policy.
Plan for prison body cameras, complaint publication
The state Department of Correction must also create a plan by Jan. 1as required by law to implement the wearing of body cameras in Connecticut’s correctional facilities. Correction Ombudsman DeVaughn Ward told Connecticut Public that the only video currently recorded at their facilities are from cameras that don’t record sound.
The plan is due to three legislative committees by Feb. 1: Government Oversight, Judiciary, and Public Safety and Security.
Under the same policy the Office of the Correction Ombudsman must publish cases on its website of people who have made complaints about medical neglect, or use of force against the Department of Correction, with consultation from the state attorney general.
Health insurance protocol change
Starting Jan. 1, insurance carriers will not be allowed to require step therapy for certain diagnoses.
The insurance approach known as step therapy requires that patients first try lower-cost treatments before the insurer will pay for the higher-priced or newer medication. As NPR reported, the trial-and-error approach of taking the lower-priced medication can, in turn, sometimes extend a patient’s symptoms.
The law now applies to people in Connecticut with multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis. Under the law, step therapy will continue to be prohibited for people with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, after a previous ban was originally set to sunset in 2027.
Improving communication at traffic stops
The Department of Motor Vehicles, with support from the state’s Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity & Opportunity (CWCSEO), must begin creating materials to help people who have physical disabilities or cognitive impairments communicate better with police or emergency responders.
The DMV already provides a similar approach for people with autism who request the materials. The blue envelopes hold registration materials needed at a traffic stop, for example, and other materials about that individual’s preferred accommodations. For the new initiative, the envelope would be yellow.
Learn more
Other policies taking effect in 2026 and beyond can be found online through the General Assembly’s website.
