A California freeze is likely to bite into Chipotle Mexican Grill’s profits early this year, but state-mandated minimum wage increases are scarcely nibbling at the margins.

Only 74 of the Denver-based burrito chain’s 13,500 hourly workers qualified for pay increases under minimum wage increase laws passed in several states late last year, including Colorado, said President and COO Monty Moran in a conference call with analysts Thursday.

"That’s because we typically pay wages that more than exceed federal and state minimum wage requirements," said Moran, who added that he doesn’t expect the new requirements to impact burrito prices.

Chipotle reported a 106 percent jump in fourth-quarter earnings, to 33 cents per share from 16 cents in the year-ago quarter. Revenue at the burrito chain, which went public in January 2006, grew 26.8 percent to $219.7 million from $173.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2005, and sales at stores open more than 12 months rose 10.1 percent.

For the full year ended Dec. 31, 2006, same-store sales increased 13.7 percent. Revenue grew to $822.9 million from $627.7 million in 2005. Chipotle reported 2006 net income of $41.4 million or $1.29 per share compared to $37.7 million or $1.43 year the year before.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast earnings of 28 cents a share on revenue of $216.4 million.

One analyst, Mark Kalinowski of The Buckingham Research Group, raised his earnings estimate to 30 cents per share earlier in the day, still short of the actual 33 cents the company reported.

Chipotle hasn’t yet fully assessed the potential impact of increased commodity prices on the chain’s bottom line in the first half of this year, he said. The company typically buys California limes, avocados and romaine lettuce, all of which were impacted by a recent freeze.

It’s likely that temporary price hikes won’t hit the menu board, Chief Financial Officer Jack Hartung said during the call.

Typically, Chipotle raises prices in specific markets when it is able to add naturally raised meats or organic beans or produce — which it labels "food with integrity" — in those markets.

"We will not move too quickly to go to the menu board for things that will be temporary," Hartung said.

Chipotle, which ended the year with 573 restaurants, plans to open 95 to 105 new stores this year, up from 94 new eateries last year, executives said.

The company, which said it had felt some weather-related sales slowing as blizzards pounded parts of the country this winter, said it expects low to mid-single-digit same-store sales increases in 2007.