By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

MINIMUM wage earners interviewed by this reporter have mixed views about a House bill that will increase the local rate and establish a wage review committee.
Some say the measure is “too little, too late,” while others believe that it’s about time the Legislature increases the minimum wage which has been $3.05 an hour since 1996 after lawmakers repealed the 1993 gradual wage hike law.
No wage review committee was ever established, making the CNMI’s minimum wage stagnant for more than 10 years.
Rep. Ray N. Yumul, Ind.-Saipan, on Thursday introduced H.B. 15-220 which will increase the local wage by 55 cents two months after the bill becomes law.
Most CNMI lawmakers — including the incumbent governor — were either opposed to a wage hike or indifferent about the issue; but that was before the Democrats became the majority party once again in the U.S. Congress.
Among the first bills the House Democrats passed was a wage hike measure that includes the CNMI.
The bill would increase the federal rate from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 in three increments over two years and two months.
Yumul’s bill states that “it would be in the best interest of the CNMI if the minimum wage hike is determined and established by the CNMI Legislature rather than the U.S. Congress.”
Joanna Borja, a cashier at a hardware store, said CNMI lawmakers could have increased the local rate “a long time ago.”
She said it does not matter whether the U.S. Congress or the CNMI Legislature does it “as long as my salary increases.”
Roland Agustine, 51, a maintenance worker at a church, agrees. “If it happens, I’ll get higher pay. My salary now is very low,” he said.
Helen Albarico, 47, a commercial cleaner, and Joel Sta. Ana, 25, a waiter, both non-resident workers, said the sudden increase proposed by the U.S. congressional Democrats may adversely effect local businesses — and their jobs.
Others believe that Yumul’s bill “is too late.”
Patrick R. Litulumar, a former graphic artist working for the Public School System and now a warehouse packing man, said the CNMI government should not have waited for the U.S. Congress to act on the issue.
He said local wage increase proposals have always been introduced in the Legislature, but “every time they tried to pass a bill, the Chamber of Commerce would block it.”
He said he wishes Yumul “good luck.”
“If he succeeds in getting it passed, it’s good. But if not, then it doesn’t matter because it really is too late.”
Fely Forbes, a cashier at a gas station, shares the same sentiment.
“It’s too late for the CNMI Legislature to do it their own way — they should have done it many years ago,” she said.
Renato Dones, 40, a gas station attendant, and Lane, 25, a waitress, said they prefer the federal minimum wage because what the CNMI Legislature is doing now is “too little, too late.”
They said they believe things will be better in the CNMI if federal labor and immigration laws are finally extended to the islands.
Yumul’s H.B. 15-220 states that the minimum wage will be increased on a gradual basis pursuant to the recommendation of a wage review committee.
Similar committees were created in 1996 and 1998.
The first one, which was chaired by a garment industry executive, opposed a wage hike, while the second one never convened because the federal government did not appoint anyone to serve on the panel.