Getting a summer job might not be the most fun way to spend your break, but now even those who want one will have a harder time landing a gig.

It might not be our fault — the economic slow down in the States means fewer tourists, which for us (especially in Victoria) means fewer jobs. But that knowledge doesn’t make the situation any easier to bare.

Then there are the other factors to consider: gas prices have skyrocketed, traveling is more expensive and ultimately, the cost of living is too. But this isn’t news.

As students we’ve been shackled with more debt then ever before: higher tuition, higher rent and higher food costs — but our wages are still the same.

The minimum wage in B.C. is $8 an hour — it has been since 2001. When you consider inflation over the past seven years, it just doesn’t make sense. By the time the average undergraduate finishes a degree, he or she is $50,000 in debt, four years short of time and that much more “outdated” in terms of the newest requirements.

These factors make us examine the value of university. If you get a degree to get a job, but your job can’t even pay your rent, it gets hard to justify the effort. More importantly, it’s getting hard to afford the effort.

But with undergraduate degrees acting as essential keys to unlocking the job world, we aren’t left with many choices. Everyone needs them, we just don’t all get to use them. At the rate things are going, PhDs will be the new bachelors — oh wait, they already are.

Meanwhile, those looking to fund their education are left in the familiar choke-hold of not getting a job because they don’t have one — not something a person can sustain forever, especially in school.

If we can’t eat right, we can’t think right. It shouldn’t have to come down to deciding between books and dinner. Important resources like the UVic food bank, or Access UVic have also been shouldering their fair share of financial strain.

Recent budget cuts could mean cutbacks in a variety of clubs and programs essential to students. And when you consider the price and anxiety taking a load of classes can cause, doing all that while being an in-need student short of food or services only adds unnecessary work to the challenge.

We know people aren’t trying to thwart us. UVic wants us to get degrees; the government wants us to get degrees. But do they have to throw in so many cement roadblocks?

We could take a lesson from some of the other provinces, like Alta., whose minimum wage has been on a constant incline, jumping from $7 last year to $8 last Sept., then $8.40 this April. We could even snoop around Ont.’s plan to increase minimum wages from the current $8.75 to $10.25 in March of 2010.

We may not be the cheapest province in the country (that honour currently goes to N.B.’s wage of $7.75), but no other province has waited so long to update their wage rates. And while $8 an hour isn’t great, B.C. is moping behind even further for inexperienced workers, at $6 an hour.

Sure, the age-old battle remains: if wages increase, so do prices. But while this may be the case, the prices are going up (like it or not) and students are being left far behind.

It’s time to step it up. If we want to give this province’s new grads a fighting chance, change is necessary — and not just the “can you spare any” kind.