Listen: Minimum wage to increase in 18 states – here’s how a rise could hurt workers

What’s going on?

The minimum wage is set to increase in 18 states and around 20 cities and counties for the new year, CNNMoney reported.

Does a mandated minimum wage help workers?

That’s up for debate. On today’s show, Doc talked about how increasing minimum wage ends up hitting workers in the long term when employers have to reduce their hours, work them harder in less time or turn to automation instead of human employees.

“You think randomly you can just mandate $15 without knowing any of these individual companies’ profit margins and what the books are?” Doc asked. “You think they’re making enough to cover that? What if they’re not?”

Companies can’t just magically pay more, and they’re dealing with profit margin expectations and stockholders.

“This is a failure across the board,” Doc said.

Which states are raising hourly minimum wage?

• Alaska: $9.84
• Arizona: $10.50
• California: $10.50 or $11, depending on if the business has more than 25 employees
• Colorado: $10.20
• Florida: $8.25
• Hawaii: $10.10
• Maine: $10
• Michigan: $9.25
• Minnesota: $7.87, rising to $9.65 for businesses passing a threshold of an annual gross revenue of $500,000 or more
• Missouri: $7.85
• Montana: $8.30
• New Jersey: $8.60
• New York: varies depending on location and company size; learn more here
• Ohio: $8.30
• Rhode Island: $10.10
• South Dakota: $8.85
• Vermont: $10.50
• Washington state: $11.50

To see more from Glenn, visit his channel on TheBlaze and listen live to “The Glenn Beck Radio Program” with Glenn Beck and Stu Burguiere weekdays 9 a.m.–noon ET on TheBlaze Radio Network.