Connecticut’s full-time state workforce barely grew between 2019 and 2025. Its payroll did.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll (ASPEP) shows Connecticut had 50,363 full-time state government employees in March 2019 and 51,079 in March 2025 — a net increase of just 716 employees, or 1.4 percent. Over the same period, full-time March payroll jumped from $338.1 million to $452.1 million, an increase of $114 million, or 33.7 percent.
Payroll per full-time employee rose from approximately $6,713 in March 2019 to $8,851 in March 2025, an increase of 31.9 percent, according to Yankee Institute calculations using the Census data.
The Census survey measures gross payroll for March. It includes salaries, wages, fees, commissions and overtime, but excludes the employer share of retirement costs, Social Security, health and life insurance and other fringe benefits. So the $452.1 million figure does not represent the full cost of employing Connecticut’s state workforce.
Where Payroll Increases
Most of the payroll growth came from a handful of government functions.
The Census classifies workers by government function rather than by Connecticut agency. From 2019 to 2025, the state-government education function accounted for $31.1 million of the $114 million increase in full-time March payroll. Health and hospitals together accounted for another $22.7 million, corrections $12.2 million, judicial and legal services $9.5 million, financial administration $8.3 million and highways $7.3 million.
Together, those categories accounted for roughly 80 percent of the statewide payroll increase.
Higher education drove nearly all of the increase within the education category. Full-time higher-education payroll rose from approximately $92.1 million in March 2019 to $121.4 million in March 2025, an increase of $29.3 million. That represented about 94 percent of the increase in the broader state-government education category.
Corrections moved in the opposite direction on headcount. Connecticut reported 6,238 full-time corrections employees in 2019 and 5,486 in 2025, a decline of 752 workers. Yet full-time March payroll increased from about $33.5 million to $45.7 million, or 36.5 percent.
That pushed March payroll per full-time corrections employee from approximately $5,370 to $8,335, a 55 percent increase, even as the number of full-time workers fell.
The Census data do not explain how much of that increase came from base wages, annual increments, overtime, changes in the types of jobs being filled or other factors. Because gross payroll includes overtime, the figures should not be read as average salaries.
Connecticut Near the Top
The increase also puts Connecticut near the top nationally. At $8,851 in March payroll per full-time state employee, the state ranked second among the 50 states in 2025, according to Yankee Institute calculations using Census Bureau data.
Only California was higher, at approximately $11,397 per full-time employee. New York followed Connecticut at $8,515, Massachusetts at $8,152 and Oregon at $8,018.
Nationally, state governments reported 4.14 million full-time employees and $31.36 billion in full-time March payroll, equivalent to approximately $7,584 per worker. Connecticut was 16.7 percent above that nationwide figure.
Connecticut also had the highest payroll per full-time state employee in New England. Massachusetts came in at $8,152, followed by Rhode Island at $7,699, Vermont at $7,470, New Hampshire at $7,008 and Maine at $6,561. New York’s $8,515 also remained below Connecticut.
That comparison is limited to state government. Census publishes county, municipal, township, school district and other local-government employment separately, so New York’s extensive county and local-government workforce is not included in its figure. Census says its state-government table covers the 50 state governments by government function.
Connecticut’s payroll growth was not driven by a comparable expansion of its workforce. Full-time state employment increased just 1.4 percent from 2019 to 2025, while March payroll climbed 33.7 percent. In corrections, payroll rose even as the full-time workforce shrank, while higher education accounted for more than a quarter of the statewide payroll increase.
Six years later, Connecticut is paying substantially more for a state workforce that is nearly the same size — and its March payroll per full-time employee now ranks second-highest in the country, before pensions, health insurance and other employer-paid benefits are counted.
