If a minimum-wage hike is in the cards, now is the time to do it, as most Utah employers already pay more than $5.15 per hour, some local economists and businesses leaders say.

But others say an increase in the federally mandated minimum wage will lead to higher prices for goods and services, because businesses won't be able to absorb the extra labor costs on their own.

On the heels of a report commissioned by Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and ahead of the Democrat-led Congress promising to take action on the minimum wage within 100 hours of convening on Thursday, politicians, activists, business owners and advocates are talking about the potential impact of raising the minimum wage.

But to this point, they have not reached a consensus.

A committee appointed by Huntsman to oversee a study on the issue released its findings last month, but it was unable to come up with unified recommendations for the state Legislature about whether it should act or leave the matter to Congress, which has pledged to take up the issue early in its next session.

President Bush also identified the minimum wage as a priority, although he has said that any increase in the wage should be paired with tax adjustments to protect small businesses.

Mark Knold, senior economist with the Utah Department of Workforce Services, said that if there's a time to contemplate raising the minimum wage, with an eye toward doing the least harm, that time would look a lot like the present.

Raising the wage "probably would have very minimal effect right now," Knold said, "because with the labor market as tight as it is, the unofficial minimum wage is already well above $5.15.

"The concern about raising the minimum wage, by those who don't like to do it, is that the government is artificially telling the market what to do. If that's your concern, the best time for the government to raise the minimum wage is when the market has already raised it. In this environment, there's really no impact, because the market itself has already driven that wage up."

The Utah study found that 170,000 Utahns would be directly affected by an increase in the minimum wage. According to Knold, about 16,600 people make $5.15 per hour at their jobs now. Most, he said, are in the food-service industry, where wages are supplemented by tips.

However, with unemployment at record lows (2.6 percent at last count), many of those jobs are commanding more.

Ammon Reid, manager of the Midvale Training Table, said entry-level workers — hired to bus tables — start at approximately $6.25 per hour. The Training Table operates nine restaurants in Utah, from Provo to Ogden.

Likewise, Cynthia Baker, spokeswoman for 7-Eleven Inc., said the convenience store chain "typically does not pay a minimum wage."