With Seattle lifting its minimum wage to $15 an hour and other cities considering the same move, CNNMoney spoke to several small business owners about how such an increase would affect them.

The answers weren't encouraging.

Laurie Thomas owns Nice Ventures, a restaurant management company in San Francisco. An increase would be "daunting" and likely push her prices up by at least 15 to 20 percent, Thomas told CNNMoney. In addition, she said she might have to let some employees go.

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Warren DeStefano, who owns two Retro Fitness franchises in the New York City area, says he'd have to cut his employees' commission pay. "People think I'm in the 1 percent, but I'm not," he noted.

Ken Casaccio owns Leamington Foods, which consists of three grocery stores in Chicago. As for the impact on his business, "$15 would eliminate my baggers," he said. It isn't feasible to hire inexperienced workers at that wage, Casaccio explained.

Stephen Cornell, owner of Brownies Hardware in San Francisco, stated he would likely have to consider cutting workers' hours and vacation time and perhaps even eliminating jobs, even though he already starts employees off at $12.50 an hour.

Meanwhile, Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, which includes Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, believes minimum wage hikes are hurting young workers.

"Various states and municipalities have increased their minimum wage, thereby increasing the cost of employing inexperienced workers," he wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

"The bottom line on labor: make something less expensive and businesses will use more of it. Make something more expensive and businesses will use less of it."

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