In my brief time at McDonald's, I was paid the then minimum wage, $1.60 per hour. That summer, $1.60 would buy a bit more than five gallons of gas. By that meas

In my brief time at McDonald's, I was paid the then minimum wage, $1.60 per hour. That summer, $1.60 would buy a bit more than five gallons of gas. By that measure, $20 per hour in California is about keeping up with inflation. On the other hand, about 125 hours of $1.60 would cover a year's in-state tuition at a public university then. It takes more like 700 hours at $20/hour to cover California in-state tuition now.