LOOK at all the jobs that Saipan has to offer. There are many job offerings being advertised in newspapers on Saipan.
The problem is that they all only pay $3.05 an hour.
Local people would like to work if the pay is good. Cost of living is high in the Chamorro islands and there is no way that a person can become a part of the middle class by only earning $3.05 an hour.
The minimum wage increase will benefit Chamorros. It is better to have a few jobs that pay well and are filled by Chamorros than to have a hundred jobs that pay $3.05 an hour filled by foreigners from other land. The money leaves our islands and heads straight to their home countries. We need that money to be spent here.
It is OK to have a few jobs occupied by foreign workers, but that is not the case right now. Where will Chamorros go if they can’t even find jobs in their own land?
There is no hope for the garment industry because of NAFTA. Give it up already. It’s time to find some other industries and wake up to the fact that it is a very competitive world. We need to find something that no other place offers and be the best at offering it.
If we want to increase our tourist numbers we need to differentiate ourselves well from other destinations. We need to communicate to our target markets about what differentiates us from Hawaii, Guam, and other islands. Imagine if the television show “Survivor” was filmed on one of the Northern Islands. We need exposure.
Increasing the minimum wage may result in many people losing maids and farmers. To those who do, don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.
Think about your children. Do you want them to compete for $3.05 an hour jobs? Jobs that offer quality pay are better than many jobs that offer low pay. Increase the minimum wage slowly. Give businesses time to adjust.
Do not hire more lobbyists. Look at what happened with Abramoff. We can’t afford lobbyists right now. Who was the idiot who decided to hire a highly paid consultant for CUC? It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that if you double the rates, you’ll generate revenue. That was a waste of thousands of dollars.
Back to the topic at hand — we must consider inflation. A minimum wage increase is way overdue. A minimum wage increase is necessary to attract more Chamorros and other U.S. citizens to the private sector instead of always relying on the government as an employer that pays decent wages.
That is one of the reasons why politics here is so dirty. People here are fighting for good paying jobs. MVA screwed me over when its HR department lied to me saying that there were no openings when I inquired over e-mail while I was in California. They actually had an opening for the managing director. When I confronted them, they told me that I should have seen it in the newspapers. I told them that they do not sell Saipan newspapers in the states, which is the reason why I inquired through e-mail. They totally denied what they did. I complained to the Office of Personnel Management and they told me to file a complaint with MVA’s HR department. I then figured that it was just another position that was reserved.
Many top positions here are already reserved for special people. That is just another example of how dirty politics here on Saipan is. Saipan would be way more productive if politics were less involved.

JESSE TORRES
Kagman, Saipan