Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • May 23, 2016 www.HartfordBusiness.com TOP STORY New OT rules give 46K CT workers a raise Starting later this year, millions more workers will become eligible for overtime pay, including nearly 46,000 Connecticut workers. Under a new rule announced by the White House last week, anybody making a salary of less than $47,476 ($913 a week) will automatically qual- ify for overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week. That's roughly double the $23,660 threshold (or $455 a week) that's cur- rently in place. According to the Connecticut Department of Labor, 46,000 workers in the state could benefit from the new regulations. The change — which has been criticized as too drastic by many employers — will go into effect on Dec. 1, 2016. They are intended to expand access to overtime pay for otherwise low-salaried workers who log long hours but have been treated as exempt from overtime because they perform some manage- rial duties. The change is expected to affect the retail and restaurant industries the most. But it will also affect all private-sector industries, as well as govern- ment offices and nonprofits, from social-service organizations to universi- ties. CNNMoney, HBJ Staff reports HARTFORD Dunkin' Donuts Park misses completion deadline Dunkin' Donuts Park, home of the Hartford Yard Goats, wasn't substantially completed by last week's May 17 deadline, leading city officials to push off the team's Hartford home opener for at least another month. Eastern League Commissioner Joe McEacharn and Mayor Luke Bronin both said last week that until they have a level of confidence that the stadium con- struction is completed, there will be no designation for Opening Day in Hartford. I. Charles Matthew, chairman of the Hartford Stadium Authority, told NBC Connecticut that Opening Day might not happen until late June or early July. The Yard Goats have been playing their home games for the month of May at Dodd Stadium in Norwich. The team was scheduled to play its first game in Hartford May 31. Bronin said that it's "quite likely" the city will pursue financial penalties against stadium developer Centerplan Cos. for missing the deadline. REAL ESTATE Area April house sales, prices rose Area home sales and prices rose in April, Realtors say. Closed sales of single-family dwellings in the Hartford region rose 26 percent last month, to 901 units vs. 714 a year ago, the Greater Hartford Association of Realtors said. Median home prices grew 2.9 percent in April, to $216,000 from $210,000 a year ago, they said. In the condo market, units sold last month rose 22 percent, to 210, but their median price fell 5.7 percent, to $133,500, the association said. HEALTH CARE CT's uninsured rate falls to 4.9% Connecticut's uninsured rate fell to 4.9 percent in 2015, as more residents gained healthcare coverage through private and public health plans, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately 36 percent of Connecticut residents received health insurance through a public plan in 2015, while 66.9 percent had coverage through a pri- vate health plan, according to the latest National Health Interview Survey. In 2014, 7 percent of Connecticut residents were uninsured and for those who did have coverage 35.9 percent had it through a public plan, while 64.1 percent had it through a private plan. Nationally, the uninsured rate fell to 9.1 percent in 2015, making it the first year in U.S. history that fewer than one in 10 Americans lacked health insurance. ENERGY & UTILITIES Eversource wants to ramp up credit reporting In the face of a three-year upswing in delinquencies among its residential accounts, Connecticut's largest electric and gas utility wants to report customer payment data to credit bureaus every month. Eversource said monthly credit reporting of all residential payment activ- ity, part of a proposed one-year pilot program not yet approved by the state's utilities regulator, would spur more customers to pay due bills and could boost credit scores for those who pay on time. The program could also hurt credit scores of approximately 85,000 of Ever- source's 1.2 million residential customers who are currently delinquent. Attor- ney General George Jepsen opposes the plan, arguing that it could hurt eco- nomically vulnerable residents. NRG Home Solar pulling plug on CT As recently as September, NRG Home Solar was looking to hire for its Middle- town offices. Now it has notified the state it is closing its doors in Connecticut. According to a notice filed with the Connecticut Department of Labor, NRG Home Solar in Middletown will be closing its location and putting all 46 employ- ees on its staff out of work. The solar installer had announced a job fair for 50 open positions last September. Erik Linden, a NRG Home Solar spokesman, said Connecticut just wasn't the right fit for the company's residential solar market. GOVERNMENT, POLITICS & LAW CT ranks high for debt-to-income ratio Connecticut's debt-to-personal income ratio, as well retiree healthcare li- abilities, are among the highest in the nation. Its unfunded pension costs also run high on a per-capita basis. The Pew Charitable Trusts released a report showing Connecticut's ratio of public debt to private income is 8.8 percent. That ties it for second with Mas- sachusetts and behind only Hawaii, where the ratio is 10.6 percent. Connecticut's unfunded pension costs, which reached $25.3 billion in 2013, were 11.3 percent of personal income, according to the report. The unfunded retiree healthcare costs stood at $22.6 billion, which represents 10.1 percent of personal income. Merrill unveils online business formation tool The Secretary of the State's office last week took the wraps off a new system that allows businesses to do all of their incorporation online. Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said the new system should allow an application to be submitted as fast as it takes to order a cup of coffee. Under the previous process, people forming businesses in Connecticut, or registering existing companies from foreign jurisdictions, had to mail, fax or walk in paper forms to the Secretary of the State's Hartford customer-service center. This new function will allow the roughly 30,000 new LLCs and corporations that are formed every year, to go through the process online. ECONOMY CT adds 3,500 jobs; unemployment down slightly The state added a net of 3,500 jobs in April for a small year-over-year improvement in the unemployment rate. According to figures released by the state Department of Labor, Connecticut's sea- sonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in April, down from 5.8 percent in April 2015. Connecticut has recovered 20,100 jobs since last April, and 95,600 of the 119,100 jobs it lost in during the March 2008 to February 2010 economic recession. The state had 1.68 million nonfarm jobs in April. BY THE NUMBERS 4.9% The percent of Connecticut residents without health insurance in 2015, which was down from 7 percent a year earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 901 The number of single-family homes sold in Greater Hartford during the month of April, up 26 percent from a year earlier. 113 The number of judicial department layoffs issued last week, as part of a second wave of job cuts at the state agency. $47,476 The new salary threshold for determining which U.S. workers are eligible for overtime pay. Employees in various industries who make below that, qualify for OT if they work more than 40 hours in a week. TOP 5 MOST READ on HartfordBusiness.com ■ Dunkin' Donuts Park not substantially complete ■ NRG Home Solar pulling plug on CT ■ New overtime rule could benefit 46K in CT ■ Judicial dept. lays off 113 in second round of cuts ■ Energy embezzler sentenced in $9M theft STAY CONNECTED For breaking and daily Greater Hartford business news go to www.HartfordBusiness.com. HBJ on Twitter: @HartfordBiz HBJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HartfordBiz HBJ on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe Weekly e-newsletters: CT Green Guide Weekly, CT Health Care Weekly www.HartfordBusiness.com/subscribe WEEK IN REVIEW I M A G E | C N N

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