“The survey is going very well. From the indications that we got people are interested to participate. Many of them still have questions and are yet to submit their survey forms,” chamber executive director Richard A. Pierce told the Variety yesterday.
He said a number of businesses submitted their survey within the first couple of days of the survey, while some are still filling out the documents which will be submitted within the next few weeks.
The deadline for the submission of the completed survey forms is the first week of September, but Pierce said they are confident the deadline will be met and most of the businesses will have submitted their survey forms by then.
Pierce is urging those who have not yet joined the survey to do so before the deadline.
“This is very important for all of us, to make sure that the cost of doing business here will be based on the CNMI rates and not based on the prevailing wage rates for Guam or the mainland which is very high,” Pierce said.
The chamber of commerce initiated the survey for local businesses and informed the community of the importance of participating in the survey.
The prevailing wage rate survey will provide valuable data for the process of determining the prevailing wage rates for individual job classifications.
The chamber earlier said that without a prevailing wage rate, CNMI employers will be left with no choice but pay the rates of Guam, Hawaii, or the mainland which are much higher and should not apply to the commonwealth.
As soon as the final survey results are in, Pierce said participating businesses will be given a copy of the copyrighted reports. Those who will not participate can still avail of the reports at a much later date.
To participate or for more information, contact the chamber at 233-7150/233-7152, or email [email protected].{jcomments off}
