Millions of low-paid workers are applauding California’s new minimum wage law, which will boost the state’s current $10-per-hour minimum to $15 an hour by 2022.

But scores of other employees who are now earning $11 or $12 an hour won’t be happy to see less skilled workers being bumped up closer to their pay scale.

“They will expect to get increases as well, and justifiably so,” said Paul Little, president and CEO of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. “This goes beyond the minimum wage. If you are making $12 an hour now, you’ll expect to make more than that. It’s called wage compression.”

If those employees don’t receive pay increases there will be little motivation for them to stay in their current retail positions, for example, or strive to become entry-level managers, Little said.

The Center for Labor Research at UC Berkeley looked into how many minimum-wage workers would be bumped up and how many others would get raises, too, and came up with the following totals: 1.9 million in Los Angeles County, 605,000 in Orange County, 339,000 in Riverside County and 331,000 in San Bernardino County.

The center estimates that statewide 5.6 million workers who either make minimum wage or more than that will see their pay rise as a result of the new law.

Yossi Kviatkovsky, owner of The Rack, a Woodland Hills restaurant/sports bar that employs 46 workers, is already grappling with that issue.

“My workers are already demanding it,” he said. “When California’s minimum wage was at $8 an hour and it was bumped to $10, all of my employees who were making $10 an hour immediately demanded an increase, and I complied with their wishes. This is an issue of pride for them.”

Pride may be involved. But economically, it runs far deeper.

“When you add in workers’ comp and other increased insurance costs, that $10 an hour will really be more in the neighborhood of $12 to $12.50 an hour,” Kviatkovsky said. “This will have a devastating effect for restaurants and it will be reflected in the future prices of food. You won’t get a Happy Meal or hamburger for $5 anymore … it’s impossible.”

Kviatkovsky said he is already burdened with a variety of other expenses. He cited a new health requirement as an example.

“Now I’m required to pay each employee for three days of mandatory sick leave whether they are sick or not,” he said. “So let’s say I have 50 employees, just to round it off. If I give each one of them three days off, that’s 150 days a year. Multiply that by eight hours and that comes to 1,200 hours times $10, and that’s $12,000 a year out of pocket. How much do I have to raise prices just to pay for that?”

Economist Christopher Thornberg, a founding partner with Beacon Economics in Los Angeles, agreed that employees who are currently making slightly more than California’s minimum wage will have to get pay hikes as the state’s minimum wage rises.

“Absolutely,” he said. “And this is a two-to-one whammy. If it costs you an extra $200,000 to pay for the increased pay for minimum wage workers, when the other employees are figured in the cost will actually be $400,000.”

Ironically, the very people who the pay hikes are intended to benefit will suffer, according to Thornberg.

“The real effect will be felt by low-income workers,” he said. “Employers will start hiring more seniors and get rid of entry-level people. They’re going to say, ‘If I have to pay more money I want experienced people.’ They just won’t hire someone without experience.”

Little agreed.

“I think what will happen is what we’ve seen happening in other places,” he said. “Some businesses will raise their prices to offset their increased labor costs. But in most cases they will have to reduce costs in other ways — by cutting hours or by having fewer employees.”

Not everyone buys into that argument. An April 1 blog post on the Economic Policy Institute’s web page supports California’s tiered minimum wage pay hikes.

“Moving beyond the timidity of most recent minimum wage hikes is exactly what is needed if we are to undo decades of falling wages and deteriorating living standards for the lowest-paid third of America’s workforce,” the post said. “Simply put, a bold effort is needed to make up for the lost decades in which the minimum wage was simply eroded by inflation or was increased only modestly.”

Staff Writer Liam Truchard contributed to this story.