By Haidee V. Eugenio
Variety Assistant Editor

VISITING Office of Insular Affairs congressional liaison Stephen Sander yesterday told CNMI employers that the wage review board being pushed by the Fitial administration and the local private sector may still have a chance in light of the economic downturn here.
He encouraged employers to come up with input on the pending wage hike bill, as well as on the bill federalizing CNMI immigration system through position papers or letters to the U.S. Congress or through him.
Sander, the guest speaker at yesterday’s meeting of the local chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management, said U.S. Senate staffers Allen Stayman and Josh Johnson are trying to work with their bosses on a wage board to establish a minimum wage for the CNMI similar to the system in American Samoa where a wage board reviews wages on a regular basis.
In American Samoa, there are different wages for different industries, and the rates are determined by a wage review board.
“I know that Al Stayman and Josh Johnson have worked with their bosses, chairman Bingaman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and the ranking member, Senator Domenici. They are working with the committees that have jurisdiction over the minimum wage and they are suggesting that a system that includes a wage board to establish the minimum wage be implemented in place of what was passed originally by both houses,” he said.
“The idea,” Sander said, “is to raise the minimum wage to the U.S. level as quickly as possible without substantially harming the industries involved or their employees. We do not want layoffs.”
He said there is a chance that the CNMI concerns will be considered because the U.S. House speaker and U.S. Senate president have not yet appointed members to the conference committee to tackle the wage hike bill.
“The question is whether this will be enacted finally by the U.S. Congress. There are a number of people who are hopeful that, in a conference between the House and the Senate, this will occur. But you can never tell until the bill is passed. So we’re hopeful, but we do not know yet what will happen,” he said.