Yes!—take part in the Chamber’s salary survey—it’s important to all of us!

[B]By FRANK GIBSON[/B] [I]Special to the Saipan Tribune[/I] [B]Question: I know that the Chamber of Commerce is conducting a salary survey. Why should I give them my salary and benefit information? What benefit will I receive from participating?[/B]

Thank you. I hope that all businesses and HR staff are aware of the ongoing salary survey you mentioned that’s being conducted by the Guam Employers Council (GEC) on behalf of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce (SCC). The Chamber and the CNMI SHRM arranged a meeting on July 6th with Andy Andrus, executive director of the GEC, who is conducting the survey, to explain the need and the process. There have also been several newspaper articles about the survey. At the same time I’m sure that everyone who employs non-U.S. citizen employees are concerned about what they will have to do to maintain their employees after Nov. 28 of this year, when the umbrella permits expire.

So, how important is this wage study to the CNMI?

It’s very important. For those who employ nonresident professional employees, this survey is a significant step in the process of placing these valuable employees on a legal visa status that will allow them to continue their stay in the CNMI. The final version of the CNMI transitional worker program regulations are expected to be released by or before Sept. 15, but have not been released yet. It has been made clear, however, that those employees who are eligible for H1-B visas will have to obtain this visa to remain in the CNMI. The results of this salary survey will, hopefully, provide a CNMI average wage that can be used as a prevailing wage for many of our professional positions, instead of a Guam or U.S. prevailing wage.

The initial version of the regulations appeared to allow these professionals to be placed on a CW-1 visa while the non-immigrant H1-B visa is being processed. Whether or not this will be allowed to continue to the end of the transition period in 2014, or even it that latitude has been removed, will not be clear until the regulations are available. At some point, however, and probably better sooner, rather than later, the processing of an H1-B visa will be necessary for professional positions, such as accountants, lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, computer programmers, and analysts and others. Without a CNMI prevailing wage, the required wage that will have to be paid to obtain the visa will in most cases be significantly higher than the current average local wage.

Richard Pierce, executive director of the SCC, was quoted in the papers the other day that survey information had gone out to 375 businesses. I spoke with Andy Andrus this week and he read me off the list of companies that he had received survey information from and, though I didn’t count them, the number was probably around 25. He said that he wasn’t worried because he was receiving responses every day and that most of the information usually did arrive close to the deadline, which is Sept. 9. I encourage every company in the CNMI to participate and to send Andy your survey information. If you haven’t received a letter inviting you to participate, contact Richard Pierce.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to provide some information about the value of the prevailing wage survey to Mark Rabago at the Tribune and he extracted some of the information for an article that came out July 29. There have been several other articles emphasizing the importance of the survey. YOUR contribution will make a difference, as there must be at least 30 incumbents surveyed for each position to meet the U.S. Department of Labor’s survey standards. The results will be coded, so that no individual company will be identified. Your concern with the privacy of your salary information is unnecessary. Also, those who participate will also receive a copy of the survey.

For additional information on the value of this survey, I am going to provide the full text of my answers to Mark’s questions:
[B] 1. How important is a prevailing wage study in light of federalization?[/B]

Federalization has created the urgent need for the prevailing wage study. Employers can no longer bring employees to the CNMI under the previous immigration laws and regulations. Any non-U.S. workers brought into the CNMI after Nov. 28, 2009 require a U.S. visa acquired under federal immigration laws. To obtain a H1-B visa the employer must pay the “prevailing” wage for the area of employment. The prevailing wage rate is defined as the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment. The CNMI does not currently have recognized prevailing wage rates so a sponsor applying for a H1-B visa for an employee is required to pay the prevailing wage for Guam or a standard prevailing wage for the United States which will be significantly higher than what is being paid in the CNMI. A prevailing wage study for the CNMI will result in wages more reflective of the average wages being paid in the CNMI.

[B]2. Is it being conducted to transition contract workers to a visa category?[/B]

It is important to recognize that the H1-B visa only applies to specialty positions that require a bachelors degree or higher and the employee must possess that degree from a school that is considered equivalent to a U.S. college. Only workers in these types of positions can be placed on visas. The non-specialty positions and employees can be placed on a CNMI-only CW-1 visa that will allow continued employment at or above minimum wage some several years into the future until that visa status is ended. At that point there is no existing legal work or immigration status for most contract workers to continue working in the CNMI.

[B]3. How would contract workers be affected by this? [/B]

As stated, it would only affect those contract workers in specialty positions, such as accountants, lawyers, doctors, teachers, computer programmers, and analysts and others. The regulations define a “specialty occupation” as requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in a field of human endeavor including but not limited to architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, biotechnology, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business specialties, theology, and the arts, and requiring the attainment of a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent as a minimum. A prevailing wage is not required to be paid to employees in a CW-1 status.

[B]4. How would resident workers be affected by this?[/B]

It should actually benefit them. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the hiring of a foreign worker should not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers comparably employed. In order to comply with the statute, the department’s regulations require that the wages offered to a foreign worker should be the prevailing wage rate for the occupational classification in the area of employment. So, if the prevailing wage increases wages for visa-holders, those U.S. workers performing the same work should be paid at the same rate.

[B]5. What would be the impact to employers and the economy?[/B]

That is hard to answer, but it will almost certainly bring up the wages and payroll expenses for most companies. However, most will not be able to replace their specialty workers easily and without also increasing salaries as an alternative to the visas. From an HR perspective, companies should be looking for qualified specialty workers with U.S. citizenship or the right to work freely in the U.S. I am not an economist and would not want to speculate on the economic impact. The bigger impact will occur when the CW-1 visa authority expires. At this point we cannot predict when that will occur as the regulations for this visa have not been released yet.

Again, I urge all businesses to take part in the survey. The processing of H1-B visas will require a prevailing wage determination and if we don’t have acceptable survey data based on CNMI salaries, the visa approval will be with a Guam or U.S. mainland wage rate. Do your part and participate.

[I]Frank L. Gibson, SPHR, GPHR, owner of HR Support, CNMI, has been a resident of the CNMI for more than 14 years. One of the founding members of the CNMI Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management, he has worked both as a line-manager of human resources and in the Human Resource Office.[/I]