By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

FORMER Gov. Juan N. Babauta yesterday blamed lawmakers for not passing a minimum wage increase measure and his successor, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, for scrapping an executive order that required the federal minimum wage for resident and alien workers in government projects.
Babauta, who was governor from Jan. 2002 to Jan. 2006, said his wage directive was a step toward having a federal minimum wage in the CNMI.
He said he proposed legislation to raise the minimum wage but this was blocked by the Legislature.
As governor, however, Babauta also opposed a wage hike measure offered by a fellow Republican, then-Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider.
When Fitial came into office in 2006, one of his first directives was to repeal Babauta’s federal minimum wage directive for government construction project workers.
In 1993, a law was enacted to gradually raise the local minimum wage until it reached the federal level, but this was later repealed by the Republican Legislature over the veto of then-Gov. Froilan C. Tenorio.
“The legislators not only reneged on the wage increase but also killed the incremental increase,” Babauta told Variety in a telephone interview regarding his letter to California Rep. George Miller dated Jan. 3, 2007.
In that letter, Babauta said a federal minimum wage increase for the CNMI is “overdue.”
“As governor, I attempted without success to garner political support in the Legislature to raise the wage. Despite various proposals, no action was taken,” Babauta told Miller, D-Calif. and chairman of the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee.
“In an effort to demonstrate the effects of wage levels on job growth, I instituted an executive order that mandated the U.S. mainland minimum wage for all government projects. The result was clear, jobs were created. Unfortunately, the current administration saw fit to remove that order,” Babauta added.
Miller has introduced a bill raising the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25, which will also apply to the CNMI on a separate timetable. A week later, Miller’s bill was passed by the House.
“Mr. Chairman, we have heard every excuse not to raise the wage mainly from the garment industry. When economic times were good, we heard that a wage increase would hurt business and job growth. Now that times are not so good, we hear the same charge. With the continued inaction in the CNMI, I have come to the conclusion that the time has arrived for the congress to mandate minimum wage growth. In fact, we are overdue,” Babauta said in his letter to Miller.
The former governor said in the short term, they may be some inflation and other impacts, but he said in the long term, a viable economy for residents must be created, and that Miller’s wage proposal will do just that.
The CNMI has been experiencing resident migration to the mainland because of so few opportunities on the islands, Babauta said.
“Wage growth combined with educational improvement, technology and continued improvement of our infrastructure are our future economic tools, not promises of low wages and unskilled labor,” he said.
Babauta said a review of recent job advertisements revealed that of 46 jobs available, 44 were paying $3.05 an hour.
“We have virtually no private sector resident job base,” he said.
He said in 1992, there was an average of 565 persons enrolled in the Nutrition Assistance Program, which administers the food stamp program. He said this increased by 303 percent to 2,276.
“(This), despite overall job growth of 10,000 new jobs added between 1992 and 2005. Our problems stem from the low wage paid,” Babauta told Miller.