Experts: Dramatic Hike in Minimum Wage Would Mean Job Losses, Fewer Hires

In Congress, Democrats have introduced legislation to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025, more than doubling the current minimum wage of $7.25. In Ohio, a bill has been introduced to raise the state’s minimum wage from $8.80 to $15 by 2027 — and indexing it to inflation thereafter.

But experts say now is not the time to raise the minimum wage. After studying the effects of recent minimum wage hikes in six different states, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that increasing the minimum wage would hurt new entrants into the labor market, especially in the manufacturing sector.

A recent analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that as many as 3.7 million workers could lose their jobs as a result of a $15 minimum wage. 1/27/2021