By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

Already prepared for the worst, the part-owner of the call center business says they have a “plan B” — which includes a commercial rental space business and maybe even a restaurant.
We Manage Call Inc.’s Erick Van Der Maas yesterday said they are still hopeful that the federal wage hike will not be applied to the CNMI, but if it is, “then we have to go back to the drawing board.”
Van Der Maas said the only other businesses they can have here are those related to tourism, and education.
“We will stay in the commercial rental space business (at the renovated Nauru Building) and possibly revive the restaurant,” he said.
Van Der Maas and his partner in Los Angeles acquired the building in Susupe for their call center operation.
We Manage Call has only a year left to get of the groud with the call center as provided in the qualifying certificate, or QC, it received from the government in Nov. 2005.
A QC entitles the company to generous tax breaks.
But We Manage Call has delayed the opening of its facility pending the result of the minimum wage bill introduced in the U.S. Congress.
Van Der Maas said their operation will now depend on the “numbers and rates” to be provided by the wage review board that the CNMI government is asking Congress to create for the islands instead of just extending the federal rate to the Northern Marianas.
The local rate has been $3.05 an hour since 1996, while the federal rate is $5.15.
The federal wage hike measure calls for a $2.10 increase implemented in two years.
Van Der Maas said they can only afford to pay $4.50 to $5.50 per hour. He said if the rate reaches $7, their business will no longer be competitive in the CNMI.