Marcie Black serves lunch at Golden Dragon Chinese/American restaurant in Post Falls, Idaho on Tuesday, July 22, 2008. Black is one of thousands of Idaho workers are getting ready for a pay raise. The federal minimum wage is expected to increase 70 cents per hour Thursday to $6.55 per hour. The Idaho Department of Labor anticipates the higher wage will boost paychecks for nearly 22,000 jobs across the state.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.



The increase, from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour, is the second of three annual increases required by a 2007 law. Next year's boost will bring the federal minimum to $7.25 an hour.



Workers like Walter Jasper, who earns minimum wage at a car wash in Nashville, Tenn., are happy to take the raise, but will still struggle with the higher gas and food prices hammering Americans.



"It will help out a little," said Jasper, who with his fiancee support a family of seven, and who earns the minimum plus commissions when customers order premium car-wash services.



The bus fare he pays each day to get to work already went up to $4.80 this spring from $4.