Senator Surangel Whipps, in a phone interview, said that he cannot see the rationale behind why the Committee is sitting on such “important bills.”
According to Whipps, five bills introduced by different senators have “languished” in committee since last year.
“No minimum wage bill introduced since last year has advanced past first reading in the Senate,” he pointed out.
Among those bills, he said, are two of his proposals, the version proposed by Senator Regis Akitaya and the bill introduced two weeks ago by Palau President Johnson Toribiong.
Whipps version of the bill proposed for a three-phased increase of the minimum wage. First, there would be an increase of the minimum wage to $3, then to $3.25 after six months, then to $3.50 after another six months.
Akitaya’s verson, on the other hand, would increase the minimum wage to $3.25, then after six months, to $3.50. Toribiong’s bill would increase the minimum to $3.50 over a six-year period.
The current minimum wage of $2.50 has been in place since 1998.
Whipps disclosed that all those bills were passed on first reading in the Senate.
According to him, once those bills were approved, they would refer them as usual to the Ways and Means Committee for further study preparatory for them to be presented to the whole body for second and third reading.
“No actions were taken after they were referred to the committee, there were no public hearings conducted. I have been appealing to members of the Committee, particularly Sen. Rudimch, to expedite action of those bills, but nothing has happened. I don’t know the reason why they are sitting on such important legislation,” he stressed.
The bill will affect the more than 10, 000 workforce in Palau, including more than 3, 000 foreign workers.
He said that passage of the minimum wage bill hike is important considering the fast increase of cost of living in the island republic.
Since 2000 until now, according to him, the cost of living in Palau has increased by 26 percent.
“I don’t mind whose name is in the final version, what I want is that the bill will be approved as soon as possible,” Whipps concluded.
