Standing with representatives from faith- and labor-based organizations, a state senator called Tuesday for a $1.85 increase in Utah's minimum wage, from $5.15 to $7 per hour.

"Economically, it makes sense from the businessman's standpoint," Sen. Ed Mayne, D-West Valley, said. "From the religious standpoint, it's morally right."

If the Legislature passes Mayne's bill, Utah would become the 16th state to raise its minimum wage beyond the federal rate of $5.15 per hour. Washington, D.C., has also increased its wage beyond federal requirements.

Though he acknowledged it may be a tough sell with lawmakers, Mayne said the move enjoys widespread public support.

"It's time for the politicians, the elected public officials, to step forward and start listening to the people of Utah," he said. "The public and the people want it. Legitimate businesses want it."

A recent Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll appears to support Mayne's contention.

The November survey showed 77 percent either strongly or somewhat favor an increase in Utah's minimum wage. Twenty-one percent of the 400 Utahns questioned by Dan Jones & Associates oppose the measure.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

The Utah Restaurant Association will vigorously oppose any legislative effort to raise the minimum wage, president Melva Sine said Tuesday.

"A restaurant owner has so much of their budget that they have allocated to take care of their labor force," Sine said.

Increasing the cost of labor will result in a negative impact, she said, which could mean an increase in prices, a cut in employee benefits or an overall decrease of the work force. In that case, Sine said, it's the most vulnerable workers who will be impacted.

"It's the very people that Sen. Mayne says will be helped by an increase in the minimum wage who will lose their jobs," she said.

But Mayne, Utah AFL-CIO president, disagreed, saying lower wages force more Utahns onto state and federal assistance and increase the tax burden for individuals and business owners.

"Those businesses need to belly up. They need to do what's right, morally and economically, and pay their fair share," he said.

The owner of Tony Caputo's Market and Deli said Tuesday that he has found during his eight years in business that he would actually lose money if he only paid his workers minimum wage.

"I'm a tiny little business guy, and I can't afford to not pay people more than minimum wage," Tony Caputo said. "I get less for my money if I pay minimum wage."

At $5.15 per hour, workers have little incentive to stay when they can get paid the same elsewhere, meaning employers lose the time they spent training new workers, he said.

Besides that, Caputo said, "People deserve to get paid a wage that they can live on."

Earlier this year, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. appointed a working group to study the effect of raising the state's minimum wage. In an October report to the Legislature's Business and Labor Interim Committee, chairwoman Pamela Atkinson said that nearly a fifth of all Utahns would benefit by a raise to $7 per hour.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com