Economist warns thousands of Virginia jobs at risk after minimum wage hike signed by Spanberger

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Fox News Digital spoke to Manhattan Institute Cities policy analyst Santiago Vidal Calvo about the plan to raise the New York City minimum wage to $30/hour. An economist is warning that Virginia’s recent minimum wage mandate won’t help the state with affordability as it is intended and could lead to thousands of jobs being cut. "I think something that we've seen in coverage of this bill and how this law in Virginia was that this is something that needed to be done to improve affordability for Virginians," Rebekah Paxton, the research director of the conservative Employment Policies Institute, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. Paxton explained during the interview that businesses will be forced "to find room in their operating costs to make those numbers work." CALIFORNIA'S $20 MINIMUM WAGE FOR FAST FOOD WORKERS LED TO 'NEGATIVE OUTCOMES,' RESEARCHE