[diverdan]

Minimum wage should be tied to the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Back in 1971 I was making $2.00 an hour working part time in a sporting goods store in Hollywood having a great time. A gallon of gasoline was about $.25 a gallon. So for an hour of work I could buy 8 gallons of gasoline. The higher priced gasoline in the Midwest was up to about $.40 a gallon so one could buy only 5 gallons for an hour of labor. I could afford to drive my 4 year old $1000.00 Alfa Romeo. Michigan to California @ 30 mpg needed about 74 gallons which was less than $40.00 at L.A. prices. That was 20 hours of labor. At the $4.00 a gallon with the same car that would be $296.00 Absurd! So gasoline has gone up by 16x. That would be about $32.00 an hour minimum wage at $4.00 a gallon. If gasoline goes down to $2.00 a gallon that would be $16.00 an hour. The cost of university today has made it impossible for students to work their way through school at $7.50 an hour. The rich get richer and the poor have a much worse life than they did 45 years ago.