March 13, 2014 3:16PM 

# Raise Minimum Wage, Kill Jobs 

By [Steve H. Hanke](https://www.cato.org/people/steve-h-hanke) 

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During his State of the Union address, President Obama announced that he intended to raise minimum wages to $10.10/hour for certain workers. Based on [data](https://www.cato.org/blog/minimum-wage-laws-kill-jobs) from EU countries, it is clear that minimum wage laws kill jobs. I concluded that hiking the minimum wage will kill jobs in the U.S., too. Executives surveyed in the [Duke University/​CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey](http://www.cfosurvey.org/) agree.

Chief Financial Officers from around the world were interviewed and the majority of them concurred: a minimum wage increase from $7.25/hour to $10.10/hour would kill a significant number of jobs.

Here’s what the CFOs had to say:

![Media Name: screen_shot_2014-03-13_at_3.20.30_pm.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/screen_shot_2014-03-13_at_3.20.30_pm_1.png?itok=BFRFZtRg) 

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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