What payroll taxes does a Connecticut employer pay?

A Connecticut employer pays matching Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) FICA, federal unemployment (FUTA) at an effective 0.6% on the first $7,000 of wages, and Connecticut state unemployment (SUI) on the first $26,100 of wages at the employer's assigned experience rate.

What is the Connecticut SUI wage base and rate?

For 2025 the Connecticut unemployment taxable wage base is $26,100 per employee. New employers pay about 3.0% on that base until they earn an experience rating, after which the rate varies based on the employer's history of layoffs and benefit charges.

Does the employer pay Connecticut PFML?

No. Connecticut Paid Family and Medical Leave is funded entirely by a 0.5% employee payroll contribution. The employer withholds it from each paycheck and remits it to the CT Paid Leave Authority but does not contribute its own funds, so it is shown separately here, not in the employer cost.

How much does it cost to hire someone in Connecticut?

Beyond salary, expect roughly 8% to 9% of wages in employer payroll taxes for a typical full-time worker — most of it FICA (7.65%), plus small FUTA and Connecticut SUI amounts that are capped by their low wage bases. The exact figure depends on your SUI experience rate.

What is the FUTA rate for Connecticut employers?

FUTA is a federal tax of 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, reduced by a 5.4% credit for paying state unemployment tax on time, leaving an effective 0.6% — a maximum of $42 per employee per year. Connecticut is not currently a credit-reduction state.

Connecticut Employer Payroll Tax Calculator

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Hiring in Connecticut costs more than the salary on the offer letter. This calculator totals the employer-side payroll taxes — matching FICA, federal unemployment, and Connecticut state unemployment — so you can budget the true cost of an employee, and it separately shows the PFML amount you withhold from their pay.

How it works

Each tax applies to a different wage base:

employer FICA = 6.2% × min(wage, SS base) + 1.45% × wage
FUTA          = 0.6% × min(wage, $7,000)          (6.0% − 5.4% state credit)
CT SUI        = your rate × min(wage, $26,100)     (new employer ≈ 3.0%)
employer cost = FICA + FUTA + CT SUI

The PFML contribution of 0.5% is withheld from the employee, not paid by the employer, so it appears as a separate reference line. FUTA and SUI are small in dollar terms because their wage bases are low, while FICA scales with the full salary.

Example

For a $55,000 employee at the 3.0% new-employer SUI rate, employer FICA is about $4,207, FUTA is $42, and Connecticut SUI is $783 (3.0% of the $26,100 base), totaling roughly $5,032 — an effective 9.1% on top of salary. The employee also has $275 of PFML withheld from their own pay.

Notes

This is an estimate. Your actual Connecticut SUI rate depends on your experience rating and can be well above or below the new-employer rate. Wage bases and the new-employer rate are reset annually; confirm current figures with the Connecticut Department of Labor. Workers’ compensation premiums, benefits, and administrative costs are additional and not modeled here.