It's not minimum wage's fault, it's the government guaranteeing student loans. Tuition skyrocketed since then and has been out of control since.

Then with so many people being told "You have to go to college so you don't become a garbageman!" the requirements for most jobs increased as well. Manufacturing in pharma, for instance, I could take a kid out of middle school and teach him the job in an hour. Get fresh grads from college for a bachelor's degree and they still need an hour of teaching. But now the Bachelors is required for some reason.

Ironically, garbage man pays pretty decent for some minimal manual labor.