CALIFORNIA — The cost of gas at some California locations is more than the federal minimum wage.
Drivers all over the United States are paying record-high prices for gas that seem to be increasing daily. One of the biggest problems, according to CBS News, is that those record highs are not evenly distributed around the country, making some gas prices in California cost more per gallon than the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25. In California, it’s $14 an hour for minimum wage.
AAA says the national average gas price is about $4.622 per gallon for regular gas, which is the highest recorded average price. A year ago, the average was $3.046 per gallon.
Here is a list, according to GasBuddy and CBS News, of the locations in California that are charging at least the federal minimum wage:
- Chevron at 901 N. Alameda Street in Los Angeles: $8.05 a gallon
- Chevron at 51557 US-395 in Lee Vining: $7.39 a gallon
- Chevron at 712 North CA-127 in Shoshone: $7.39 a gallon
- Shell at 453 Main Street in Bridgeport: $7.39 a gallon
- Valero at 377 Main Street in Bridgeport: $7.35 a gallon
- Mobil at 8489 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles: $7.29 a gallon
- Shell at 51424 US-395 in Lee Vining: $7.29 a gallon
- Mobil at 22 Vista Point Drive in Lee Vining: $7.29 a gallon
- Chevron at 3600 Alameda Drive in Menlo Park: $7.39 a gallon
“After several weeks of soaring gas prices, last week saw prices nationally slow down ahead of Memorial Day, but I’m afraid the good news ends there. While gasoline demand has been seasonally soft, the large decline in refining capacity over the last few years has meant that refiners are struggling to produce even lower amounts of refined products. This has led inventories to struggle to see any gains, boosting concern that they won’t be able to catch up. Coupled with continued talk that the EU is still working on sanctioning Russian oil, even though Hungary is a holdout, oil markets are quite on edge. As a result of the continued decline in gasoline inventories in recent weeks, wholesale gas prices surged last week, which will likely boost prices at the pump in short order. Motorists in the Great Lakes could see prices jump early in the week to new record highs, and the rest of the nation will follow. Odds are rising that we’ll eventually see the national average reach that dreaded $5 per gallon,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy in a news release.
Yahoo Finance says that part of the reason is because of demand, which slightly rose over the holiday weekend. It is expected to increase over the summer even with the high gas prices, most likely causing the average gas price to jump to $6 per gallon by August.
The states with the highest average gas prices include California, Hawaii and Nevada, according to GasBuddy. The lowest are Georgia, Arkansas and Kansas.
Congress is working to address concerns over price gouging, according to Yahoo Finance. Congress passed the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act in the House, and they are working on getting it to the Senate as well. It would allow President Biden to declare an “energy emergency,” which according to Yahoo Finance, would ban the sale of consumer fuel at these prices in order to prevent price gouging.