Chamber executive director Richard A. Pierce said, “Almost 375 surveys were extended to organizations, businesses and small companies on Saipan, Tinian and Rota.”
Asked if this exceeded their expectations, Pierce said, “It’s decent to date, but we are continuing to ask businesses and government to respond. We continue to get daily calls from companies that want to participate.”
Pierce said the participants to the prevailing wage survey included the chamber, the Marianas Visitors Authority, the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Society of Human Resource Management, among other organizations, schools, clinics, companies, and government departments.
Pierce told Variety the chamber’s contractor for the wage survey, the Guam Employers Council, is taking responses until September 9, 2011.
The chamber received a $16,150 technical assistance program grant from the Department of the Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Anthony M. Babauta for the prevailing wage survey.
Pierce told Variety that H-visa workers are excluded.
“Foreign workers currently holding H-1 and H-2 visas are excluded from the survey process. The methodology we utilize meets standards found under 20 CFR 656.40.”
In other news, the alarming financial situation in the United States has sent jitters across the globe. Pierce said “interest rates at CNMI banks are already high. Our banks are hesitant to lend on mortgages, and it’s only going to get worse.”
He also found it surprising that the U.S. maintained its AAA rating as long as it did.
Given the financial woes on the mainland, Pierce sees as another immediate concern the decrease in federal spending in the CNMI.
“This affects spending by way of income and federal grants. The U.S. dollar will weaken and will have an effect on the CNMI. Business success, and failure, are barometers. And the barometric readings are going down,” said Pierce.
