The House leadership has expressed its support for the creation or revival of a wage review board to study minimum wage hike proposals in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in favor of that. I intend to recommend that we should take heed of the recommendation made by the business community for the formation of a wage board,\u201d said House Speaker Oscar M. Babauta in an interview yesterday.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce called on Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to appoint members to the Wage Review Board. <\/p>\n
Chamber president Charles V. Cepeda said the board has already been created but it is without members.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are \u2026requesting [Fitial] to appoint members of the board so it can begin its work. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve been asking the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the wage review board would structure a staggered minimum wage increase to build up to an \u201cisland minimum wage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chamber said various industries should review economic reports and indices that would best determine each industry’s ability to pay and come up with an industry-based minimum wage schedule.<\/p>\n
In its position paper, the Chamber also called for reduction and eventual elimination of nonresident workers to strike a balance with resident workers. <\/p>\n
House Speaker Babauta said that he is not necessarily opposed to a minimum wage increase, which is currently at $3.05, but he said that \u201cwe need to be careful in looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should allow the Commonwealth to survive. Our focus now is to revitalize and rebuild the economy. Our potential investors will look at it and determine if they can ably afford the cost of doing business here,\u201d said the veteran congressman.<\/p>\n
For instance, he warned that the end-user would eventually suffer from any minimum wage hike now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we raise the wage, the end user would have to pay extra. For instance, if you want to build a house, if the construction business pays high for the workers, it will be factored in by the seller. A likely result: the cost would be three times the cost. Those are some of the ramifications,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Babauta said he will recommend to the House Ways and Means Committee to tackle the wage board issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that we had a wage board in the mid \u201990s but it\u2019s not been active. I\u2019ll ask the committee to look at it and see if it needs to be revived or there\u2019s a need to form a new board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The House Ways and Means Committee has recently held public hearings on the proposed minimum wage increase in the CNMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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