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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. --

Employees at the Wild Blue Car Wash are paid anywhere from a dollar to three dollars more than minimum wage, to wash your car.  So, while the Colorado 14 cent minimum wage increase doesn't impact them directly, it has a trickle-down effect that's put their bosses in a predicament.

"What it does, is the pay that we pay our employees, it makes that less attractive so as minimum wage gets closer to where we are paying our employees now.  We still have to make a decision whether we want to raise our pay raise or not," David Begin, Owner of Wild Blue Car Wash said.

Costs are a very important part of the success or failure of a small business and one of the largest expense is labor.

Begin, the owner of Wild Blue Car Wash and iTopIt has a total of 40 employees between his four locations, that count on a paycheck.

"Paying college off, I have my own place, rent, car payments, just everyday life," Mykia Brannum, an iTopIt employee said.

So as the gap between minimum wage gets closer to what the employees at these two local businesses, the owners said inevitably they want to be higher than the current $7. 78 state minimum, which means keeping close eye on everything.

"We manage our costs very closely so everything from utilities cost going up, electricity," Begin said.

This is the third year in a row the minimum wage has ticked up in Colorado.  The majority of minimum-wage workers are atleast 20 years old.