Minimum wage workers are receiving a raise as they return to work today. The 4.9 percent increase took effect yesterday as part of an amendment passed by Florida voters in 2004.

According to law the Florida minimum wage must be adjusted annually based on the federal Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. This year it jumps .36 cents from $7.31 to $7.67.

In 2010 Florida had 253,000 workers making minimum wage. Victoria Crider is one of those workers. She has washed cars at Octopus Car Wash on Mills Avenue for seven and a half years. She says she's looking forward to the increase. "We work paycheck to paycheck around here. We depend on our weekly pay so it does matter", she said.

Crider's manager Sam Bryant isn't quite as excited. He says pay increases, regardless of their intention, will cost jobs and raise prices. He employs fifteen workers making minimum wage and when asked what effect the pay increase will have he said, "The more you pay out the less your bottom line" he continued, "I lose, you lose, everybody loses all the way around." Bryant said he may be forced to cut back hours and raise prices.

Bryant is not alone in his assessment. Financial observers say it's the unintended consequence of a law designed to help those at the bottom of the pay scale. Financial planner Nancy Hecht with Certified Financial Group says Central Florida is especially vulnerable. Hecht says, "look at our area, we're part-time employees, we're hourly employees, we're service industry. Those are the ones that get hit the hardest by the mandatory increases and then the employees end up paying by not having the jobs."

So for business like Octopus Car Wash where labor is one of the highest costs of doing business employees may not see the bump in pay they expect. Bryant says, "When the schedule comes out on the second of January, we're going to make some changes."