An Appeal to US Congress

The Issue: The proposed inclusion of the NMI under the federal minimum wage law with increases.

Our View: Such inclusion should be based on a study, specifically, how it would affect our fragile economy.

We support federal minimum wage increase for as long as it is kept in the other side of the Pacific divide given the robust national economy that continues to grow, annually.

Such isn’t the case in these isles and not when our economy has plummeted by 30 percent over the last three to four years as a direct result of the Asian crisis.

Some 2000-plus tourist related businesses have closed their doors and while another 2000 business licenses have been issued recently, it doesn’t reflect real economic rebound for these isles.

Yes, we have kept our fingers crossed that the Asian economic recovery would soon descend on these islands. But that too remains guardedly optimistic at best, an issue that would take several more years before we find out if Japan and Asia have really turned the corner.

Therefore, the tourism industry, once the number one income earner, has struggled all these years with faint hope that there would in fact be opportunities to rebound to a level “as we knew it”.

Meanwhile, the apparel industry remains the sturdiest sector in fueling our halfway empty local coffers. Any increase would instantly translate into fast-forwarding the closure of this industry and other smaller ones if federal minimum wage is applied in the CNMI.

The loss of business, therefore, revenue generation, would plunge quicker than our ability to lure further investments. In fact, the threat of federal wages application has discouraged potential investors from bringing their hard-earned income into these isles.

Given the devastating nature of such a proposal, it would do the federal government greater good to commission a study from an impartial think tank group to determine the benefits or serious ruination such a proposal would inflict on our fragile island economy.

It’s a case of the two economies being entirely different in substance, thus our fervent appeal that a study be done forthwith to see, once and for all, the effects such a proposal would have on the local economy. Si Yuus Maase`!