Way back in 1964, Ronald Reagan said, "The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." Even today, he could not have been more right. One of the things that our liberal friends are dangerously ignorant about is economics. If it's not the belief that the country can be taxed into prosperity, it is the notion that a $20-an-hour or more minimum wage will help working people. An economist is now warning about just how destructive high-dollar minimum wages would be to the nation's economy.
Thanks to years of high inflation, Illinois' $15/hour minimum wage has the same buying power now as $11.36/hour did in February 2019, when Gov. Pritzker signed the five-year phased increase into law. There's been no real debate in Springfield over a raise or indexing to inflation https://t.co/WnKTIuhmaw
— Dan Petrella (@PetrellaReports) August 18, 2026
READ MORE: The Minimum Wage Is Always Zero: New $30 Minimum Wage Could Axe Hundreds of Hotel Jobs in LA
Rebekah Paxton is an economist and research director with a conservative organization called the Employment Policies Institute (EPI). As leftist members of Congress push for a $25-an-hour minimum wage floor to be set by 2031, and there is the threat of an influx of Democratic Socialists to Congress in 2027, she is sounding the alarm that a federal minimum wage mandate of that amount would be an absolute "job killer." She stated in an interview with Fox News Digital:
"When you’re talking about doubling or tripling the minimum wage, you’re talking about doubling and tripling labor costs for businesses in those areas. There may be some businesses that try to absorb that through higher prices, but ultimately what we know from economists, business owners, and workers themselves is that it doesn't always work. In a lot of ways, it means business owners are going to have to slash jobs and reduce the number of hours that folks are able to work. Our report shows that that’s going to cost almost five million jobs across the country."
That five million includes 1.2 million tipped employees, mainly in the restaurant and hospitality industries. Paxton goes on to say that Sunbelt states like Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida would be the states hardest hit. Many of the fastest-growing counties in the nation are in these states. That trend would even expand to places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas where, the researcher noted, it would "more than tripl[e] the current minimum wage."
The Democrats solution for inflation is to raise the minimum wage to $25/hr. Are they purposely trying to destroy the economy?
— Anthony (@AnthonyG0528) August 19, 2026
Pushback comes not just from economic majors in Congress like Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) - yeah, she really is - but also from a group called One Fair Wage, a coalition of organizations and labor unions that support a $25-an-hour minimum wage and claim it is not just a far-Left idea. President of One Fair Wage, Saru Jayaraman, says, "We're seeing so many MAGA voters excited about a $25 minimum wage..." Sorry, I'll take "things that never happened" on that one.
In 2026, there are approximately 282 Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-endorsed candidates running for office. It's a pretty safe bet that they all support a $25-an-hour minimum wage. Not all of them will win, but will enough of them make it to Congress, and are enough of them economically illiterate, to pass the Living Wage for All Act, introduced by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Democrat Rep. Delia Ramirez (IL-3) in July and April, respectively?
It doesn't take more than to take an Econ 101 class to understand that raising costs for small businesses forces them to lay off employees. Once again, bad Democrat policy destroys the very people they say they want to help.
Denver's minimum wage will rise to $19.84 an hour on Jan. 1, renewing debate over how higher labor costs affect workers and businesses. https://t.co/KY9wKndBqN
— Denver7 News (@DenverChannel) August 17, 2026
Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.
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