HERE’S a scenario to ponder:
1. We know that to make the economy work, the government must reduce its work force.
2. We know that CNMI’s guest workers, on the whole, are paid closer to $5 an hour, if one adds benefits like housing, food, medical care, repatriation costs.
3. We know that, according to the Department of the Interior’s recently released private sector assessment for the CNMI, “The permit mechanism has a far greater impact on overall wages and productivity than the minimum wage, and is a commonly-used best practice for managing labor pools.”
Given those three factors, what if government (a) cut the number of permits given to foreign workers by a significant amount (500-1,000); (b) cut the number of government employees by an approximately equal number; and (c) the private sector then offered those jobs to the former government employees at the $5/hr that the foreign workers were getting?
It may need some fine tuning, but in principle, it should work, and thereby achieve the needed cut in the size of government, begin to cut the dependence on foreign workers, and attract local residents even before a wage increase is imposed on the CNMI.

RUTH TIGHE
Tanapag, Saipan