John Kerry: “I simply underscore--I think I am correct, and the Senator may be able to confirm this--in the 1960's and 1970's, the…”

“I simply underscore--I think I am correct, and the Senator may be able to confirm this--in the 1960's and 1970's, the minimum wage permitted people in this country to be able to earn just at poverty level; but because of the diminishment of earnings in the United States over the course of the last 13 years particularly, minimum wage now produces only 70 percent of the poverty level in income. So the country traditionally has paid a minimum wage that at least promised to keep people at poverty level. Today, it is at 70 percent of poverty level, at a time when we all know it is an awful lot harder without the sufficient skills to be able to break out. Not only do we have the same kinds of antipoverty or rising tide jobs that lift you, you have a much greater difficulty, but you are much lower in the purchasing power that you have from whatever the minimum wage gives you. I think it underscores the purpose.”