Increasing the minimum wage would force businesses to lay off employees and raise unemployment levels.

The Congressional Budget Office projected that a minimum wage increase from $7.25 to $10.10 would result in a loss of 500,000 jobs. [5] In a survey of 1,213 businesses and human resources professionals, 38% of employers who currently pay minimum wage said they would lay off some employees if the minimum wage was raised to $10.10. 54% said they would decrease hiring levels. [44] San Francisco's Office of Economic Analysis said that an increase to $15 would reduce the city's employment by about "15,270 private sector jobs." [45] In 2014, Steve H. Hanke, PhD, Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University, surveyed the 21 European Union (EU) countries that have a minimum wage and found they had an average unemployment rate of 11.8%, about a third higher than the 7.9% average unemployment rate in the seven EU countries that have no minimum wage. [46]

According to the passage, how would an increase in the minimum wage lead to job losses?*