During my brief employment at McDonald's, I got the minimum wage, $1.60/hour. That was about the price of five gallons of gasoline then. Five gallons of gasoline in LA now seem to cost about $17, so they are a bit ahead of inflation by that measure.<p>On the other hand, in-state tuition ran about $200/year back then, so the minimum hourly wage was about .8 percent of a year's tuition. Now UCLA tuition is $13.4 thousand per year, and the minimum hourly wage is .15 percent of a year's tuition.