Previous Story
Too little, too late
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Posted on Sep 08 2000
The Issue: Request by Washington Res. Rep. Babauta for exclusion of CNMI from federal MW.
Our View: A Johnny Come Lately runs for the rescue too little, too late, sir; but thanks for the change of heart.
Washington Representative Juan Babauta’s has now decided to lobby for excluding the CNMI from any minimum wage bill that may be considered by Congress. But where was our Resident Representative in the early stages of the formulation of a minimum wage bill, legislation that has been in play for more than a year now?
Economic studies have been done over the years detailing the devastating impact of the immediate imposition of a federal minimum wage on the Commonwealth. The most comprehensive study, conducted several years ago by the Hay Group at the CNMI government’s request, provided significant details on the potential adverse impact of imposing the federal minimum wage.
Even a more recent economic study from the Northern Marianas College, funded by the Department of Interior concluded that “it is unclear that now is a good time for raising the minimum wage.” The evidence has been available for sometime now that increasing the minimum wage would cause serious economic disruption, if not, annihilation to the CNMI economy. Our Resident Representative has chosen to ignore that data until now. Could that have something to do with his run for the governorship?
Luckily the Commonwealth’s business leaders took up the effort and has been engaged in the minimum wage fight since increasing the CNMI minimum wage was proposed early in the US Congress. Let’s hope the efforts of the Western Pacific Economic Council laid the groundwork for keeping the CNMI out of a minimum wage bill should it pass. We are sure that our Washington Representative will try to take credit if the CNMI is excluded, but rest assured that his last minute efforts will not save us. They are too little, too late to have any real impact.
