Update: The owner of Mike's Pizzeria has elaborated on the business and name changes, saying it will keep costs down so customers won't have to pay higher prices. "I pay my employees well," he tells syracuse.com.

Earlier:

Last year, there were more than 40 Mark's Pizzeria locations in Upstate New York. Today, there are exactly 29 -- a number aimed at avoiding the higher minimum wage.

The Auburn Citizen reports the Mark's Pizzeria in Skaneateles quietly changed its name to Mike's Pizzeria last month. Technically, it's a new business, but Mike Harvard and Jamie Schneider are still slinging pizzas in the same location they've co-owned since 2003.

Harvard told the publication that they reached a mutual agreement with Mark's Pizzeria Inc. to re-open as a separate business because of the state's rising minimum wage requirements. Fast food establishments, defined by the Department of Labor as a chain with 30 or more locations, must pay workers at least $15 an hour by the end of the year in New York City and by 2021 in the rest of the state.

Fast food wages in New York went up $1 to $11.75 on Dec. 31, but Mark's is avoiding that hike because it now has just 29 locations -- one less than the number that would define them as a fast food chain. Harvard told the Citizen that it will help keep prices from rising for customers.

"I pay my employees well," Harvard told syracuse.com on Tuesday. "We take care of our employees."

Another Mark's Pizzeria in Central New York closed last month and quickly re-opened with a new name. Mike Haynes, a 21-year veteran at Mark's, opened up his own pizza shop -- Uncle Mike's Hometown Pizza -- in a former Mark's site in Camillus on Milton Avenue, next to The Home Depot.

Haynes' changeover happened so quickly, the new restaurant opened Dec. 31 without a new sign or logo.

"This all happened so fast," Haynes told syracuse.com. "I just pulled all the Mark's stuff down."

Mark's Pizzeria, based in Fairport, was founded in 1982 and grew to nearly 50 locations. Last month, the company said it would close 12 locations, but some would reopen under new names.

A representative for Mark's Pizzeria told the Auburn Citizen that the minimum wage law was not the basis for recent closures. Joe Kondas, the company's director of communications, said the Skaneateles restaurant, as well as locations in Elbridge, Manlius, Clay, and Cicero, were not profitable enough for Mark's to continue operating.

According to Mark's website, the chain's 29 remaining eateries include locations in Auburn, Groton and much of the Rochester area.