The state bar will ask lawmakers this year to authorize a significant increase in lawyers’ licensing fees after the agency approved a double-digit pay increase for some employees and warned that it might have to dip into reserves to cover expenses.

Bar administrators told the board of trustees in meetings this week that the higher costs, coupled with lower revenues from sources such as bar exam application fees, has created a budgetary bind. The bar also is expecting less money from the potential sale of its San Francisco building as the Bay Area commercial real estate market slumps.