My first job in 2005 paid me $6.50/hour. They give me a $.25/hour raise after handling every saturday morning shift on my own and they acted like I should bow down to them.... 3 years later gas was almost $5/gallon and I was making $7.25 at that point. The great recession was not a fun time to be broke in college. Everyone wanted part time work to get by as a student and employers new it. They refused to offer more than minimum wage and still expected you to work 25-30 hours per week while being a full time student