You know how some people want to raise the minimum wage so that people working in minimum wage jobs can actually, like, live on their salaries? You know…buy food, pay rent, go to the dentist…without having to trade food for rent, or rent for bus fare? The Republican Party has long been against raising the minimum wage as “bad for business,” because if we did, some executives might get $49 million in extra compensation one year instead of $50 million and then they’d have to choose between the third yacht and the fourth Porsche.

For the record, the federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is a whopping $7.25 per hour (in effect as of July 24, 2009).  That means an employee working 40 hours per week at minimum wage makes $290.00 per week, before taxes.  

Minimum wage standards are particularly important for women writ large, and the majority of such jobs are in the service sector.  Given competing family and other responsilbities, many women end up staying there.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor of Labor Statistics:

Many workers begin their post-school careers in jobs paying the minimum or something close to it, but…the vast majority of workers move on to higher paying jobs as they accumulate experience. However, there is a nontrivial fraction of workers who spend substantial portions of their early careers consistently working in minimum wage jobs. […] Less educated persons, blacks, women with young children, and workers who reside outside of urban areas are much more likely to have such minimum wage careers.

Not content that this level of pay represents poverty wages for those struggling to support families, some Republicans and Tea Party members actually want to reduce the minimum wage or eliminate it altogether.

In fact, as ThinkProgress notes today, some in the Republican Party leadership are not even sure what the current minimum wage is. Many of them, like Eric Cantor, apparently never stopped while spending tens of thousands of campaign contributions on fancy dinners to ask the wait-staff or kitchen staff how much they make.

According to ThinkProgress,

 GOP Senate nominees John Raese of West Virginia, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Linda McMahon of Connecticut, Joe Miller of Alaska, and Dino Rossi of Washington, along with Minnesota GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer, have all expressed support for lowering or eliminating the federal minimum wage. Miller even called the policy unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, in appearance on Lawrence O’Donnell’s new show on MSNBC, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was asked about this growing movement among Republican candidates, and, says ThinkProgress, “Instead of denying that the GOP wants to eliminate the minimum wage, Steele dodged the question, giving his familiar excuse, “I don’t do policy.””

He was also unable to name the current minimum wage:

O’DONNELL: So Michael, do you want to make a Republican Party commitment to minimum wage workers that you absolutely will not consider repealing or reducing the minimum wage?

STEELE: Nice try, Lawrence. I don’t do policy, I do political, so you need to talk to our legislative leadership and ask them what their position is going to be on the minimum wage.

O’DONNELL: So do you think it’s a good idea? Do you think it’s good politics to reduce the minimum wage?

STEELE: It doesn’t matter to me what I think. What matters is that the effort that we put on the ground to help our candidates win this November–they are taking their messages directly to the people, the people are responding, and they’ll get the final say on November 2 at the ballot box.

O’DONNELL: By the way, what is the minimum wage?

STEELE: [Laughing] You really like the minimum wage, don’t you? I want to talk about a lot more things beside one issue Lawrence.