It's not "a little bit harder" because while college may have risen in line with inflation, teenage earning power (minimum wage) did not. In 1981 minimum wage

It's not "a little bit harder" because while college may have risen in line with inflation, teenage earning power (minimum wage) did not. In 1981 minimum wage was $3.31 and tuition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was $832. In 2012 minimum wage for teenage summer jobs ("Opportunity Wage") was $5.25 and tuition at UW Madison was $8,592. Some retail paid more like $8 but that's still a 2-3x increase, whereas tuition increased more than 10x.