The CNMI’s minimum wage of $4.05 an hour must be increased to $4.55 this July as mandated by U.S. Public Law 110-28.
But Fitial said members of the local business community will face further difficulty if this additional labor expense is imposed at this time.
Under the Collins-Nelson compromise amendment offered to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, often referred to as “the stimulus bill,” the General Accountability Office must report on the impact of past and future minimum wage increases in the Northern Marianas and American Samoa on or before April 15.
Fitial said the findings of the study would be an important tool for the territories to convince the U.S. Congress to defer the implementation of the 50-cent mandatory wage hike in their areas through 2015 to make their hourly minimum wage rate at par with the $7.25 hourly federal rate.
Congressman Eni Faleomavaega, D-A.S, Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hi., Daniel Akaka, D-Hi., Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Ak., added the language to the stimulus bill.
Fitial said he already asked Congressman George Miller, D-Ca. and chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, to amend P.L. 110-28, the Iraq funding law which included the wage hike provision.
“Considering our current financial challenges and the weakness of our economy, we ask you to support a reasonable modification in the application of federal minimum wage increases for the CNMI. We join American Samoa in asking for this consideration in view of our significant economic difficulties,” Fitial told Miller.
“We ask for a suspension of the automatic wage hikes and the imposition of a realistic wage rate that our economy can sustain at this time, based on objective information,” he added.
He said the islands’ economic challenges are not limited to the loss of its garment industry but also to its declining tourism industry and other socio-economic problems.
“We are also coping with a protracted public utility crisis, the global recession, a government pension fund crisis, and the application of sweeping new federal immigration and labor policies that may exclude two major tourism markets for the CNMI: Russia and China,” he added.
Fitial is leaving for Washington, D.C. later this month to attend different national meetings.
