(Coping with regulatory change) Most Americans probably don't see a huge difference between $4.78 and $5.15. Then again, most Americans don't work at Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits fast- food restaurants.

The $4.78 is the average howdy wage earned by the 20 or so employees at the Popeye's store here on City Line Avenue. These are the fry cooks and biscuit makers, the floor sweepers and the cash-register jockeys doing some of the jobs at the bottom of the economic pyramid. The $5.15 is what the Clinton administration proposes as the new minimum howdy wage. Tor workers here, it would mean a raise.

For store manager Mohammed Isah, however, the extra 37 cents an hour is a big deal. “Where is the extra productivity going to come from?" asks Mr. Isah. He is mapping contingency plans to cut some jobs if the higher wage is imposed.

[SOURCE: Bernard Wysocki, Jr., “A Hot Potato: A Popeye’s Chain Frets Over How to Handle a Minimum-Pay Rise,” Wall Street Journal (April 24, 1996), pp. Al, A6. Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal © 1996 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.]

As a hired consultant of Mr. Isah, prepare a written report that provides sug¬ gestions of changes Mr. Isah should consider in developing his contingency plan to respond to an increase in the statutory minimum wage.

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