California's minimum wage increase to $20 per hour "is clearly going to cost jobs," Alex Acosta, who was labor secretary during the Trump administration, told Newsmax on Monday.
In fact, the decision by California's Democratic administration has "already cost jobs; it's going to continue costing jobs," Acosta reiterated to Newsmax's "National Report."
The former secretary emphasized that the increase is not actually to just $20 an hour, but with benefits.
"Stores are looking at nearly $30 an hour to bring on an employee," he said. "Small businesses cannot operate in that atmosphere."
Acosta pointed out that, in general, prices "have not been this high in 30 years," bemoaning that "we are living an era of $10 burgers."
He said that due to what he called a dire situation for customers, California says that "people need help, so we are going to raise wages. But that is the wrong answer. The right answer is to just slash all the regulations" that are placed on businesses.
Acosta stressed that if "California really wants to help people, they need to slash the regulations that drive gas prices up and that drive food prices up, because people can't afford this, but don't take their jobs" away by making it too expensive for businesses to hire them.
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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