“I would like to see workers getting a dignified wage that can afford to put food on the table, pay for the cost of life and buy things for the kids,” he said.
He added, however, that he’s also “cognizant of the difficulties that businesses right now in the Northern Marianas are facing.”
He said there will still be another minimum wage increase in September next year as required by federal law.
The delay that Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary Tony Babauta was talking about during the recent congressional hearing is for 2013 and 2014.
“We have an increase going up September of next year. That increase remains. That is the law,” Sablan said.
A 2007 law signed by then-President Bush mandates an annual 50-cent increase in the CNMI’s and American Samoa’s minimum wage until it reaches the federal rate of $7.25 an hour.
The CNMI’s current rate is $5.05.
