EMERYVILLE — After Emervyille’s minimum wage shot up $1.30 last month to $16.30 an hour, Pig In A Pickle owner Damon Stainbrook said he likely will pay new hires even more than that.

The reason? Because they’ll be specialty-skilled workers such as butchers and cooks. And for the $18 to $20 an hour plus tips those workers will be paid, he said they’ll also be expected to wash dishes or ring up the cash register — jobs typically performed by minimum-wage employees.

The Emeryville barbecue joint — one of two Pig In A Pickle locations — currently has five minimum-wage cashiers and dishwashers and five higher paid cooks and butchers. Stainbrook said in an interview he isn’t looking to lay off the dishwashers and cashiers. Instead, he’ll cross-train them to do the more specialized work.

“I don’t know if it’s going to improve service or affect the bottom line, but I don’t think having more skilled people is going to hurt,” said Stainbrook, a chef for 26 years who still does his share of washing dishes and other tasks in a pinch.

Whether other Emeryville small-business owners follow his lead as they figure out how to pay employees the highest minimum wage in the region remains to be seen.

The City Council in 2015 set a minimum-wage hike schedule for small businesses that rose a dollar a year until Jan. 1, 2019, and tied minimum-wage increases for larger businesses to the local consumer price index. As a result, businesses with at least 56 employees were paying $15.69 an hour by July 2018 and smaller businesses $15.

The plan called for small and large businesses to pay the same $16.30 amount starting July 1 of this year.

However, many small restaurant owners told the council this spring the sudden jump from $15 to $16.30 an hour would be too drastic. The council agreed in May to give them an extra year to catch up, but labor unions insisted on the original plan. They collected enough petition signatures to force the council to either relent or take the issue to voters. Rather than spend an estimated $26,612 to $99,795 for a special election, the council opted on July 23 to stick with the original schedule.

To afford the current minimum of $16.30, businesses have indicated they’ll be raising their prices, reducing workers’ hours or simply taking the hit in their pocketbook. Though a coalition of small-restaurant owners warned the council in May that the wage hike could force them to lay off workers or close, none interviewed for this story said they’ve had to do that yet.

Jake Freed, co-owner of Shiba Ramen, one of 17 kiosks in the Public Market food hall on Shellmound Street, said the day the wage increase kicked in, he raised the price of Ramen by 50 cents a bowl. Freed said Shiba management also is cutting workers’ hours.

Shiba Ramen has 10 employees, with three to five typically working at a time. After the wage increase, the restaurant tweaked its schedule so only two or three people work during slow times of the day.

Freed said he and his wife have made personal sacrifices to keep up with the wage increases over the years. She has not taken a paycheck from the shop the past two years and has to work another day job, he said.

“We’ve invested a lot of money there. We would take a huge hit if we had left that investment at this point, so now it’s just a question of keeping our head down and waiting for the food hall to reach its full potential,” Freed said. “They’re building a lot of housing around there, and we’re hoping it still makes sense to be there, but right now it’s tough. I certainly wouldn’t do another business in Emeryville.”

Erik Hansen, owner of Moomie’s Cafe on Powell and Hollis streets, said he raised his sandwich prices 8 to 9 percent after the latest minimum-wage increase. Because his prices were low to begin with, Hansen said he doesn’t think the increase will drive away too many customers. But he fears that a few blocks away in Oakland, where the minimum wage is less than $14, shops of the same size could charge less for a sandwich and draw from his business.

Hansen said his employees typically were making $20 an hour with tips before the latest wage increase took effect. He argued that because pretty much all restaurant workers who earn tips on top of their minimum wage already earned more than $16.30 an hour, those businesses should have been exempt from the increase.

“I don’t have a problem with the minimum wage going up to $16.30, but for food businesses to pay all employees who receive tips, and to have all the taxes on top of that, I think is going to have an impact,” Hansen said.

Dylan O’Brien, co-owner of the Prizefighter bar, said the wage hike does tap his business’ profits, but it has been doing well and will survive.

“We just make a little less money as owners each year while our staff, who make great money in tips year-round, get a raise,” O’Brien said. “I’m happy for them because our staff is the backbone of our business, and we are lucky to have each and every one of them.”

Business owners and workers’ rights advocates had urged the city to consider a tax break for small businesses hit hard by the wage increase. Emeryville currently offers rebates for business license taxes and fire inspection fees to small businesses, according to its website.

Councilman John Bauters, who had proposed the wage hike reprieve for small restaurants, said he and Mayor Ally Medina are working together to identify ways to help out small businesses.

“I think people in both the labor and the business side of it want these businesses to succeed,” Bauters said. “Identifying those solutions is not going to be easy. There’s a limit to what local governments can do to assist businesses in the private sector.”