WASHINGTON (Pacnews) — The Democrat-controlled Senate has taken up a bill that would raise the minimum wage across the United States and its territories except for American Samoa, where tuna canneries pay workers $3.26 an hour.
The House of Representatives earlier passed the minimum-wage bill with the American Samoa exemption.
Senate Democrats were moving ahead with the original legislation, which for the first time would enforce the minimum wage on the Northern Mariana Islands, another territory in the Pacific with a similarly low minimum wage.
Democrats said they are imposing the wage increase on the Northern Marianas — a proposal long blocked by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Tx. — because of the harsh labor conditions there.
American Samoa Delegate Eni Faleomavaega, a nonvoting House Democrat, opposes extending the minimum wage to that territory.
“A decrease in production or departure of one or both of the two canneries in American Samoa could devastate the local economy, resulting in massive layoffs and insurmountable financial difficulties,” he said
“The truth is the global tuna industry is so competitive that it is no longer possible for the federal government to demand mainland minimum-wage rates for American Samoa without causing the collapse of our economy and making us welfare wards of the federal government,” Faleomavaega said.
The American Samoa Department of Commerce estimates that 1,523 government workers or nearly one third of public servants would have to be laid off is the local minimum wage were raised to $7 .25 an hour.
This was the testimony of the department’s director, Faleseu Paopao, given at a joint hearing in American Samoa on the minimum wage issue.
Faleseu said no government worker is being paid below $3 an hour at present.
He also estimated that the wage increases would cost an additional $25 million.
The acting governor, Ipulasi Aitofele, told the hearing that raising local wages would mean that the administration would have to seek additional funding, while the local chamber of commerce said it is opposed to any increase because it would be devastating for the territory’s economy.