NMBAC: Wait for prevailing wage survey

The Northern Marianas Business Alliance Corp. is asking all employers to hold the submission of their petitions for renewal of all of their CNMI-only Transitional workers, or CW-1 workers, until the prevailing wage survey for the Commonwealth has been established.

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has sought the help of data companies to do the survey. Hive Analytics and DataTalks have been tapped to conduct the survey in coordination with the U.S. and CNMI departments of Labor, Department of Commerce, and the Central Statistics Division. The Commerce Department could have done the survey, but it would still need to go through procurement that would further prolong the process.

NMBAC president Alex Sablan told Saipan Tribune that they have asked employers to get educated on the whole process and why they need to wait for the results of the PWS. However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has yet to issue the new CW-1 regulations for fiscal year 2020, which starts on Oct. 1 this year.

“So, we don’t know what’s going to happen on the process. That’s one of the delays [USCIS regulations]. …So, we’re asking people to wait for the regulations first,” said Sablan.

He added that employers must wait until a CNMI prevailing wage is established because, without that, once a CW1 worker’s petition is submitted, Guam’s average salary would be the basis. “You choose the [Guam] mean wage, which is at this time line is a lot higher than the CNMI, based on our economy. We don’t have the same economy as Guam.”

The Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act of 2018 states that “in the absence of an occupational wage survey approved by the [U.S] Secretary of Labor under clause (i), the prevailing wage for an occupation in the [CNMI] shall be the arithmetic mean of the wages of workers similarly employed in the territory of Guam, according to the wage component of the Occupational Employment Statistics Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

Sablan said if employers submit their petitions for renewal, without a prevailing wage code for a specific occupation, then the Guam wage would be the basis. “Then whoever is adjudicating the application at the U.S. Labor for wage determination, may establish that that’s the new wage—even if we come up with a CNMI wage later on. …It could be a dollar higher, that’s the impact, that you can set a new bar for the Commonwealth.”

He added that’s why they advocated for the prevailing wage survey process not only for foreign workers. “[The] process is for all workers. This is not just for foreigners. This is for all workers in the Commonwealth. The wage increases are going to be established for everyone because this is what the new wage rates that are going to be for everyone.”

Sablan said establishing Guam’s median wage would severely impact the economy, with the CNMI still recovering from Super Typhoon Yutu. “That’s going to hurt our economy. That’s going to hurt jobs. It’s going to raise the cost of living—food, services, everything—dramatically. Because we won’t be able to absorb that kind of wage increase in this current economy.”

“We’re still down 30 percent, because of the lack of flights and the lack of tourists in Korea. We’re still waiting to see the Japan market come online. Really, the only group of tourists that are here are the Chinese. And, that’s not completely up, but it’s up a lot more than other source markets. So, right now, we’re still reeling from the typhon. Our economy is still down.”

He added the government is also in austerity. “So…we need to be careful about the impact on the economy by pushing Guam prevailing wages in the CNMI system before we were even ready to absorb them in our economy.”