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

"We typically pay a little more than that," Baker said. She did not immediately have information about entry-level wages or whether any specific franchises (like those in Utah) pay the minimum wage.

"I will say that it is my understanding that we don't pay the minimum wage," she said. "But franchises are individual contractors."

An increase in the minimum wage likely would have "little or no effect" on operations at the Training Table, Reid said.

However, Melva Sine, president and chief executive officer of the Utah Restaurant Association, which has long opposed any wage hike, said raising the wage will have an impact — one that will ripple all the way down to consumers' pocketbooks.

"There are only two possible outcomes to a minimum-wage increase," Sine said. "People say you won't lose jobs if you increase the minimum wage. That means that the only other alternative is for businesses to increase prices.

"In a restaurant, you have so much you pay out — for food, for labor, and so on. There's just no way for a business owner to pick up those costs within his budget. So if your costs go up, you have to let people go or you have to raise prices. That's just the economic reality of doing business."

Sine declined to speculate how many URA members pay their employees the minimum wage. But the impact on the business end, she said, goes deeper than just salaries.

"Once you increase the minimum wage, you automatically have an increase in all the costs of doing business that's related to taxes — unemployment insurance, and everything that's based on your total payroll," Sine said. "You're paying out more as a mandate."

The URA represents Utah's 4,300 restaurants, which employ 68,000 people (full- and part-time), Sine said.

Both sides of the debate admit the issue is complex. So, what's to be done?

"There are studies on both sides," Knold said. "But there doesn't seem to be any kind of negative impact from raising the minimum wage. This isn't the first time it's been raised. It came about in the 1930s and has been raised many times since. In fact, we've never gone this long without the minimum wage officially being raised. It has been nine years since the last time. And the economy has always grown, and we still have jobs."

The restaurant association will fight legislation on the state level to boost the minimum wage, Sine said.

"Basically, we feel that that's an issue that will be addressed at the national level," she said. "This issue is a multifaceted issue, and people have to understand that as long as we keep raising the costs of doing business, it's going to increase what the consumer has to pay for that service."

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com