Jobs for graduates

I had the great pleasure of attending the Northern Mariana College graduation exercises last week. Among the graduates was the mother of five of my grandchildren. Living solely from my son’s government job, she managed to get her college degree and take care of my son and five children at the same time.

She, like her contemporaries, was duly pleased with the event. She had achieved one of her life’s goals. As she turned the tassel on her cap, Carmen saw my son grinning from ear to ear. Carmen said, “Why are you so happy?”

Rich smiled his famous cheesy grin and said, “Payday!”

Celina and her classmates who had received their BS in education were pretty much guaranteed jobs somewhere in the Marianas, most of them on their home island. Moreover, they will be entering the job market at $28K plus. For Celina and her family, the age-old promise of, “work hard in school so you can get a good job” was coming to fruition. She will get an air-conditioned classroom, probably on Tinian, and the money she makes will be enough to pay off the debts they accumulated while she was in school. After several years of sacrifice, they will have a little cash left over after payday to finally enjoy an evening out with their children.

The next morning we rose from our beds at PIC and found the paper under our door. There was the anticipated front-page picture of the graduates, smiling at each other after the ceremony. Unfortunately for our proud graduates, they lost the headlines to “Minimum Wage Issue Revived,” and “NMI Non-Resident Workers Up 16%.” The smiling graduates of yesterday were forced to face the sobering thought that even with their newly earned degrees, they would have to compete with nonresident workers for jobs. The outlook for their future suddenly dimmed.

There is a solution to this problem, and it does not require legislative deliberation. It only requires the students to do what the law prescribes and for the Department of Labor and Employment to enforce the laws that are already on the books.

The Nonresident Workers Act, 3CMC, Div. 4 . Sec. 4431 states, “Any employer who desires to utilize the services of the division in locating resident workers to fill job vacancies or, if resident workers cannot be located, obtain permission to employ nonresident workers, shall notify the Chief and report such vacancies…” Section 444432 states, “Upon receipt of notification pursuant to section 4431, the Chief shall first endeavor to fill the job vacancies reported by the employer by referral of resident workers registered with the division.”

So, there is the first step. Anyone interested in working needs to get down to the department and get registered. Don’t worry about the wage, just get registered.

Section 4434 states, “The Chief shall not approve Nonresident Worker Certificates for the following job classifications: retail trade clerk, taxi cab driver, secretary, retail trade cashier, bookkeeper, accounting clerk, messenger, receptionist, surface tour boat operator, bus driver-including tour bus driver, and telephone switchboard operator.”

I know what the pat answer is: Locals won’t work for $3.05. True. True. But, who said anything about minimum wage being the wage? After all, by definition, the minimum wage is the lowest wage that can legally be paid in the CNMI. Who says the employers must pay the minimum?

And, keep in mind that for some unemployed persons, $3.05 an hour is insufficient compared to the benefits they already receive from the government, such as food stamps and health insurance.

Let the market dictate wages. If companies are told that they must hire U.S. citizens or they just won’t be able to have a cashier, a clerk or a bookkeeper, then they will have to offer a price the local market will bear. When Labor and Employment call you with a job opening and tell you it is $3.05 an hour, tell them to make a better offer. Labor and Employment will have to call every person on the list until they find someone who will work for a mutually agreed upon wage.

How will the stores cover this increased cost? They will take the extra $10 or $20 a day it costs to pay for an employee who is a U.S. citizen and spread it out at a penny a piece on the various products in their store. So we have to pay an extra two cents for a can of Spam. At least we will know that part of the cost is going to a U.S. citizen, one of our own most likely, and into our own economy.

When dollars we create locally are spent on alien labor and foreign-owned stores, a large percentage of those U.S. greenbacks are remitted to foreign ports. That is a drain on the local economy and contributes to America’s growing negative gold flow. On the other hand, dollars spent on American labor, of whatever ethnic background, remains in our community and rotates among other local businesses that also employ US citizens and are the very foundation of our economy.

The Department of Labor has the responsibility to enforce this law, but probably lacks the manpower. They will need enough money in their budget to pay the wages of enforcement personnel who will need to visit every store in the CNMI. They will need to ask all employees to see their work permits, write down their job descriptions and the dates of permit expiration..

It is only proper to pay due respect to those companies that do hire locals above the current minimum wage. Many companies do go out of their way to hire locals, giving them training and promoting them into management positions. Kudos to those who do.

All we need to do is enforce the laws that are already on the books.

Don A. Farrell

Marpo Heights