A Fox News guest slammed minimum wage increases taking effect in 25 states this year, claiming that the measures will lead to job cuts and costly fast food.

Leading the way is Washington state, whose minimum wage ticked up to $16.28 an hour in 2024. A minimum wage worker making that amount while working 40 hours a week would earn $33,862 in a year.

That figure is too daunting for Brandon Arnold of the National Taxpayers Union – a conservative nonprofit that has received funding from the Charles G. Koch Foundation.

Appearing on Fox News on Monday, Arnold said the minimum wage hikes will weaken the job market and potentially prompt McDonald’s franchises to raise the cost of a Big Mac to $15:

As [employers] start to see these labor costs increase, they may not lay people off immediately. But when times get tough, they’re gonna have to make changes. They’re either gonna have to raise prices, start to reduce those labor costs or a combination of both. And that’s not fair to those employees that are getting laid off, nor is it fair to the customers that are all of the sudden paying 12, $15 for a Big Mac.

As of July, the average cost of a Big Mac in the United States was $5.58.

He went on to say that small businesses won’t be able to afford to comply with new minimum wage laws.

“So, you’re gonna see [a] 10, 12, 15% reduction in the number of jobs available,” he continued. “All of those people would much rather be working for , eight, nine, $10 an hour than to be on the unemployment line.”

A worker making $8 an hour while working 40 hours a week would earn $16,640 for the year.

Watch above via Fox News.

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