I want to thank you very much. We fought in the last Congress for a bill to provide $1.25 minimum wage for restaurant employees, retail stores and all the rest. Mr. Nixon says it is extreme. I don’t think $1.25 an hour for somebody who works in a business which makes $1 million a year is an extreme wage, living in New York, Whittier, California, or Boston, Massachusetts.
This campaign is a fight for all those programs which Franklin Roosevelt fought for in his time, medical care for the aged tied to social security. Mr. Nixon says that it is extreme. Minimum wage, housing, education, strengthening the United States -- that is our program and I would like your help in it. Thank you. (Applause)
Source: Papers of John F. Kennedy. Pre-Presidential Papers. Senate Files, Box 913, "Union Hall, New York City, 19 October 1960." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.