By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

UNLIKE the CNMI and American Samoa, the rest of U.S. states and territories pay their workers way above the mandated federal or state minimum wages.
The CNMI minimum wage has been $3.05 an hour since 1996, while in American Samoa, wage increases are subject to a review process held every two years by the U.S. Department of Labor and a wage review board.
The rates are set for particular industries, not for an employee’s particular occupation.
The rates, moreover, are minimum rates — an employer may choose to pay an employee at a rate higher than the rate for its industry.
American Samoa has 16 wage rates ranging from $2.57 an hour for “miscellaneous activities,” and $2.68 for government employees, to $3.99 for finance and insurance, and $4.09 for shipping and transportation.
On Guam, the median salary for all occupations is $10.65 per hour based on data collected from employers in all industry sectors contained in the U.S. Department of Labor’s latest State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.
The federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, but a law passed by the Guam Legislature in 2006 raised the island’s minimum wage to $5.75 an hour effective July 1, 2007.
Guam is also covered by the proposal to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 which is now with the U.S. Senate after the House of Representatives passed it on Jan. 10.
In cases where an employee is subject to both state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher of the two minimum wages, according to U.S. Labor.
California Democratic Congressman George Miller’s federal minimum wage hike bill proposes to raise the CNMI’s $3.05 an hour minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in four years starting with a 50-cent increase 60 days after the bill’s enactment into law.
The Fitial administration, as well as the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, said they also support a gradual wage increase but the rate should be determined by a federal wage review board which they want the U.S. Congress to create.
Miller, who has tried for more than a decade to reform the CNMI’s labor and immigration laws, was blocked at every turn by now convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff whom Fitial described as his “friend,” and his congressional allies, including the former House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth like the CNMI, has a median salary of $8.22 an hour for all occupations.
The median salary is based on data provided by employers to U.S. Labor.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands, the median salary for all occupations is $11.42 an hour.
Hawaii, where the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, has a median salary of $14.39 an hour for all occupations.
Even the “poor” states like Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Mississippi pay their workers above the state and federal minimum wages.
The minimum wage in most of these states ranges from $5.15 to $7.25, but the median salary for all occupations ranges from $11.19 an hour to $12.94 an hour, based on U.S. Labor data.
California, Washington, D.C. and New York have a median salary of $15.80 to $22.88 an hour for all occupations.