Related costs like sick pay, now a requirement of the state law, unemployment insurance and workers compensation will ratchet upward, too, said Jimmy Custer, owner of Rockhouse Playschool.

Like many other business owners, Custer said he plans to bump up his other employees’ wages as well to ensure those with more experience and responsibility remain at a higher pay grade.

A reduction in entry-level part-time positions and an increase in monthly membership dues is in the future for Flagstaff Athletic Club, said owner Jim Garretson, who said he is looking at a 30 percent increase in his payroll.

Others said their hiring practices will change as they will now pass over less experienced employees. Cecily Maniaci, the owner of the Toasted Owl, told members of the Flagstaff Independent Business Alliance at a meeting last week that she had a teenager apply for a position at her restaurant in the Southside and turned him away, knowing she would have to pay him $15 an hour in little more than years.