Staffing agency license in Connecticut: license, registration or exempt

Connecticut sorts recruiting businesses into three groups. An agency that collects a fee from job seekers needs a license from the Labor Commissioner. A firm paid by employers needs a lighter registration with the same office. A temporary help service that employs workers directly and assigns them to clients is exempt from the employment agency chapter altogether. Professional employer organizations register under a separate law, and nurse staffing and homemaker-companion agencies have their own registrations with other agencies.

The administering agency is the Connecticut Department of Labor's Wage and Workplace Standards Division, not the Department of Consumer Protection, which some older summaries name. This page covers each track, the fees and bond, the fee and refund rules for agencies that charge candidates, and penalties. For a cross-state view, see employment agency license requirements.

Which track your firm is on

The employment agency license

Section 31-129(b) defines an employment agency as the business of procuring or offering to procure work for people seeking it, or acting as an agent to procure it, where a fee or other valuable thing is exacted. Under § 31-130(a), no one may open, keep or carry on an employment agency without a license from the Labor Commissioner. The application, on the Department of Labor's license form, includes a schedule of the fees you will charge, affidavits, fingerprints and evidence that the manager knows the law.

• Fee: $150 for each year, prorated by 25 percent for each full three-month period left before May 1.
• Bond: $7,500, with a surety approved by the commissioner.
• Term: every license expires on the May 1 after it issues and is renewed annually.
• Workers' compensation: the Department's forms cite § 31-286a and ask for a current workers' compensation certificate before a license or registration is issued or renewed, if you have Connecticut employees.

Registration for employer-paid firms

Section 31-130(c) exempts employer-paid placement firms from most of the chapter, "except as provided in subsection (i)," and subsection (i) requires a person that receives fees from employers to register with the Labor Commissioner. The fee is $150 with each application and annual renewal, and the Department's registration form lists no bond. This is the track most contingency and retained search firms fall into: lighter than a license, but not nothing, and easy to miss if you assume Connecticut exempts employer-paid firms outright.

Temporary help services: exempt from the chapter

Section 31-129(e) defines a temporary help service as a business employing individuals directly to furnish part-time or temporary help to others, and § 31-130(c) says the chapter does not apply to any temporary help service. A firm that only employs temps and bills clients for their hours therefore needs neither the license nor the registration. Two cautions: subsection (i)'s registration language refers to supplying employees as well as placing them, and a temp firm that also runs a direct-hire desk earns placement fees from employers. If your model mixes the two, ask the Department of Labor in writing which filing applies and keep the answer.

I found no Connecticut provision in Chapter 564 regulating temp-to-perm conversion fees or liquidated damages charged to clients. Those are contract terms; see how to negotiate recruitment fees.

Fee and refund rules for agencies that charge candidates

There is no fixed statutory percentage cap. Instead, fees must follow the schedule filed with the commissioner, and changes require 15 days' notice under § 31-131a(c). The Department's license form says the percentage is limited to the first year's starting salary. Other rules:

• No fee unless placed. No registration fees, and fees only for employment obtained directly through the agency's efforts (§ 31-131a(a)).
• Short placements. If the job lasts ten weeks or less, the applicant is entitled to a refund of the part of the fee greater than 10 percent of what they earned (§ 31-131).
• Six-month window. No fee is owed unless the applicant gets the job within six calendar months of the last referral to that employer, with a one-year window allowed for professional, executive and technical roles (§ 31-131a(e)).

Penalties

Under § 31-131c(d), operating an employment agency without a license is a class A misdemeanor, and violating other provisions of the chapter carries a fine of up to $250. A cancelled license bars the holder from a new one for five years. For a firm that charges candidates, losing the license also means losing the ability to operate in Connecticut for that period, which is a bigger cost than the fine.

PEO registration

Connecticut's PEO law, Chapter 566a, is administered by the Department of Labor, which keeps a PEO page. No person may provide or hold itself out as providing PEO services unless registered. Temporary help services are excluded from the PEO definition. Key terms:

• Fees: the statute caps initial registration at $1,500 and renewal at $1,000, with a limited registration (capped at $1,000) for out-of-state PEOs with no Connecticut office or solicitation and no more than 50 Connecticut employees. I could not confirm the amount actually charged.
• Financial requirement: at least $150,000 in working capital, or a bond, letter of credit or securities of $150,000 (§ 31-221d).
• Renewal: annual, with an audit due within 180 days after fiscal year-end.
• Penalties: administrative penalties of up to $1,000 per material violation, a $300 civil penalty per violation, and revocation or cease-and-desist orders.

Health care and home care staffing

• Temporary nursing services agencies. Firms providing temporary nursing services to health care facilities must register with the Department of Public Health under § 19a-118. As of October 2026 the DPH page lists $500 for initial registration and $750 for renewal, due July 1, and agencies file annual cost reports and must have a written agreement with each facility.
• Homemaker-companion agencies. These register with the Department of Consumer Protection under C.G.S. § 20-670 et seq., with a $375 application fee and at least $10,000 of bond or insurance covering employee theft.

Employer accounts and a checklist

Whatever your track, a staffing firm that employs Connecticut workers needs workers' compensation coverage (see staffing agency insurance requirements), an unemployment insurance account with the Department of Labor, and withholding registration with the Department of Revenue Services.

CONNECTICUT CHECK — [date] — owner: [name]

Track:
  [ ] Candidate-paid: license, $150/yr, $7,500 bond, renew by May 1
  [ ] Employer-paid placement/search: registration, $150/yr (31-130(i))
  [ ] Temp help only, we employ: exempt from Ch. 564 (written DOL answer on file)
  [ ] PEO: registration, $150,000 working capital or security
  [ ] Temporary nursing services: DPH registration by July 1

Before issue or renewal:
  Workers' comp certificate (31-286a)                [ ]
  Fee schedule filed (candidate-paid only)           [ ]
Employer accounts:
  CT DOL unemployment account                        [ ]
  DRS withholding account                            [ ]
Next review: [date]

If your firm submits candidates to Connecticut employers, keep each candidate's consent to submission on file; the right to represent template covers the wording. It is not a licensing requirement, but it is the record that settles a fee dispute.