By David Ball and Amy Moore

The News staff writers

The restaurant just opened Tuesday, but already the owners of the new Sonic Drive-in in Port Arthur are having to increase employees’ wages.

Thursday the U.S. Department of Labor increased the federal minimum wage to $6.55 from $5.85 giving hourly employees 70 extra cents per hour. With this change, employees who are covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) cannot be paid less than $6.55 per hour.

“It’s like everything else. Minimum wage goes up and in time everything else goes up, too,” Sonic owner Ron Pisana said of rising prices.

Pisana admits that salaries are one of the biggest expenses for any business owner, but his daughter, Vanessa Box, who co-owns the store, said she doesn’t mind paying more than minimum wage for qualified employees.

“Generally we start at minimum wage, but I don’t mind paying more if the person has experience and is a good employee,” she said.

Hiren Patel, owner of two Subway restaurants in Port Arthur, said an increase in the minimum wage will not affect his business dramatically, but it will definitely affect his employees’ payroll because of what he calls “the big jump.”

“That will be an increase of 70 cents a hour, or $15 to $20 per employee and per week for a total of $100,” Patel said. “It’s the biggest expense (payroll) after food costs. With the competition going around, we can’t increase the prices. We have to make up in volume and control the price.”

Owning a store on Memorial Blvd. and Ninth Ave. with 16 employees, Patel said his business will need to get the most out of the employees. He said he will probably need to cut back on the hours worked or reduce the hours the stores are open.

“If wages go up, we may cut down a little on each. We can give them extra work as the same hours they work and push them to do more to make up the difference. Nobody will be laid off,” Patel said.

When the minimum wage increases next year to $7.25 an hour, Patel said he will definitely have to shuffle prices, schedules and store hours.

Despite the added costs, Box is still on the look out for qualified employees for the recently opened Sonic on FM 365.

“We’ve got 56 employees but I need cooks,” she said.

The wage increase is the second of three provided by the enactment of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. A third minimum wage increase to $7.25 an hour will become effective on July 24, 2009. Last year the minimum wage increased to $5.85 an hour.