By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

THE Fitial administration, through the Department of Commerce, has started asking large and small businesses whether they favor an increase in the CNMI’s minimum wage from $3.05 an hour to $7.25 as proposed by a federal bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week, Variety learned.
Commerce Secretary James A. Santos yesterday confirmed an ongoing survey which he said will assist the Fitial administration in formulating a position paper to be presented to the U.S. Congress late this month.
The Fitial administration favors a gradual increase in the minimum wage but at a rate to be determined by a federal wage review board that takes into account the financial capabilities of the CNMI government and private sector employers.
It would take the CNMI four years to fully implement a $7.25 an hour minimum wage after the president signed into law the federal minimum wage increase proposed by Congressman George Miller, D-Calif.
Commerce’s one-page survey asks employers whether an increase in minimum wage will have an “adverse effect” on their businesses to “maintain” their current number of employees.
A surveyed employer who answers “yes” to this question is asked to specify whether the reduction in force will affect 1 to 5 percent of his workforce, 6 to 10 percent, 11 to 20 percent, 21 to 30 percent, 41 to 50 percent, or over 51 percent.
The employer is also asked about the costs he will pass on to consumers as a result of an increase in the minimum wage.
“We are doing our own survey to help the governor. We would like to include small, medium and large businesses but we know not everyone will be surveyed,” Santos told Variety, adding that 200 survey forms may have already been distributed.
Commerce’s Foreign Investment Assistance Office started distributing the survey forms last week.
The department’s “Survey on the Minimum Wage Increase” only has four questions answerable by “yes” or “no.”
“Are you aware of the proposed minimum wage increase?” the first question asks. This is followed by, “Are you in favor of increasing the minimum wage?”
The third question asks businesses whether they employ any person other than the owner himself and if he answers “yes,” he is asked to circle the choices: 1-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-10, or 11+.
The final question asks: “If you currently have employees, will the minimum wage increase have an adverse effect on your business to maintain your current number of employees?”
Commerce assured businesses that the information they provide on the survey form will be held in strict confidence. Employers are encouraged to fax the completed survey forms to Commerce at 664-3067.
Separate timetable for NMI
The U.S. House of Representatives passed on Jan. 10 Miller’s bill, H.R. 2 or the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which will raise the national minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 per hour in three increments over two years and two months.
Miller’s legislation will also extend the minimum wage — on a separate timetable — to the CNMI, a U.S. territory in the Pacific where, according to the lawmaker, “labor abuses have been rampant.”
The CNMI has its own minimum wage of $3.05 an hour, and has its own labor and immigration laws.
Miller has tried for more than a decade to reform the CNMI’s labor and immigration laws and was “blocked at every turn by now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his congressional allies, including the now former majority leader, Congressman Tom DeLay.”
According to Miller’s bill, the CNMI’s minimum wage should be increased to $3.55 an hour 60 days after the bill is signed by the president.
The CNMI’s wage rate, which will be federalized for the first time if Miller’s bill is enacted into law, should be increased by 50 cents an hour six months after the date of the enactment and every six months thereafter.
As proposed by the Miller bill, it will take four years after the enactment of the bill before the CNMI will reach the $7.25 an hour minimum wage.
“I urge my colleagues in the Senate to take this legislation and pass it quickly. Businesses of all sizes have been the beneficiaries of one tax cut after another over the last several years, but the minimum wage has not been raised a penny since 1997,” said Miller in a statement.