What $5 an Hour Would Mean to Them : Minimum wage: Southland workers are for the proposed hike, but many employers see higher prices and job cuts.

President Clinton’s proposal to increase the minimum wage sounds just fine to a Glendale pizza delivery man who recently endured a pay cut. But to a car wash operator in Fullerton, it’s anything but good news.

Throughout Southern California, Clinton’s proposal has touched off a debate--with not-surprising advocates. Workers tend to like the idea, saying it would boost productivity and help them afford the things they produce. Employers, particularly of low-wage workers, generally don’t like it, saying it would force them to raise prices and cut jobs.

At a Domino’s Pizza outlet in Glendale, driver Garnik Elyasian and manager trainee Julio Gonzales debated the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage to $5 an hour from $4.25--Clinton’s initial proposal.

“Everything goes up--rent and gas--but not the minimum wage,” Elyasian said.

In fact, the 31-year-old delivery man’s hourly pay was cut to $4.80 from $5.10 after his employer matched the lower wages of new competitors. “My tips have gone down too because of the recession,” Elyasian said.

Gonzales, though he supports the increase, said it might stall plans to improve employee benefits as well as lead to higher pizza prices. But if the minimum wage goes up, the 23-year-old manager would want his own $6-an-hour pay to rise as well.

“I think it should, because I worked hard to get where I am right now,” he said.

At the Sunny Hills Car Wash in Fullerton, an increase in the minimum wage would have “mucho effect,” said Flavio Bravo, assistant to the president. “We would have to pass it on to our customers.”

The car wash’s 50 employees are paid minimum wage for the first six months on the job; after that they receive a 50-cents-an-hour raise, Bravo said. With so many workers, a mandated wage increase could put the car wash at a competitive disadvantage with automated operations.

Among those strongly opposing the minimum wage increase is the Employers Group, a Los Angeles-based human resources management and lobbying association formerly known as the Merchants & Manufacturers Assn. It represents a broad spectrum of 5,000 California employers.

“With the economic problems confronting the employers in California, this is not the right thing to do,” group Vice President Karen Kukurin said. “It will cause people to be laid off and (create) more hardships on employers and employees both.”

Terry Herrick, whose Woodland Hills-based company operates 39 Jack in the Box franchises, said raising the minimum wage would put pressure on the company to raise all pay levels.

“That’s where you create problems by increasing the minimum wage. It’s a ripple effect,” Herrick said. “To make up for the costs, somewhere along the line we will have to pass it on in higher menu prices.”

Mary Beth MacKenzie of Burbank, who operates Rock’s Tree Service with her husband, said raising the minimum wage would make small companies more selective about whom they hire and more demanding of their current employees.

The increase “just sounds real good because people need the money to live better,” MacKenzie said. “People are already letting workers go because they need better productivity.”

But grocer Joe Sanchez Jr. thinks boosting the minimum wage is a question of fairness. Even $5 an hour--or $10,400 a year for a 40-hour workweek--is not enough, he said.

“I support the increase. I think it’s a plus if the people that do the work are able to afford the things that they produce,” said Sanchez, who pays more than the minimum wage to about 120 people in his wholesale grocery business in northeast Los Angeles.

Fabian Hurtado, owner of F&F; Landscaping Services in Fullerton, said he pays workers a starting wage of $6 an hour “just to keep people around. In my business, once you train somebody, it’s really a drag to have to train someone else.”

Even though he pays more than the minimum, Hurtado worries that his business would still be hurt.

“I might not have as big a (job applicant) pool to pick from because people might take burger-flipping jobs,” he said.

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Rivera Brooks and Sanchez reported from Los Angeles and Woodyard from Orange County.

* PAY DEBATE

Higher minimum wage may spell more jobs, some argue. A1

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Working for Scale

The federal minimum wage has grown steadily since it was first established in 1938. It was las raised in 1991 to $4.25 per hour. President Clinton proposes another increase, possibly as high as $5.

1938: 25 cents

1991: $4.25

Source: Labor Department