By Emma Riley | March 5, 2021 | 11:32am EST (Getty Images) (CNS News) – A new analysis by the Buckeye Institute, a free market think tank in Ohio, shows that raising the federal minimum wage to $15/hour would kill at least 116,000 jobs in Ohio and at least 18,000 jobs in West Virginia. “While some individuals would benefit from a federally imposed minimum wage hike, it is clear from The Buckeye Institute’s analysis that many others—nearly 116,000 Ohioans—would suffer job loss,” said Logan Kolas, an economic policy analyst with the Economic Research Center at who conducted the analysis. “Thousands of Ohio’s small business owners—many who have been devastated by the pandemic—will be forced to cut jobs or be put out of business by this misguided attempt to forcibly raise wages," said Kolas. "The result will be fewer jobs for Ohioans. The better policy is to leave minimum wage decisions to the states to ensure that local economies can grow, create more jobs, and hire more workers.”