The much needed prevailing wage survey to enable local business to successfully petition H1 visas for their employees will finally be conducted next month, according to Department of Commerce acting secretary Mark Rabauliman.<\/p>\n
He said U.S. Interior\u2019s Office of Insular Affairs would be funding the prevailing wage and workforce assessment study.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re able to get funding for the prevailing wage survey from the OIA. We will start the survey either the first or second week of January,\u201d Rabauliman told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
The Central Statistics Division under director Alfonsis Sound has been assigned to spearhead the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe OIA grand funding proposal\u2019s timeline is for 60 days for enumerators to conduct the survey and we have eight people assigned to do the study on Saipan and two each for Tinian and Rota,\u201d said Rabauliman.<\/p>\n
Among the questions that will be asked in the survey will relate to job description, the going rate for that job, and the type of benefits received by the employee of that certain job.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re finalizing the questionnaires and will accommodate the pending questions and uncertainties out there that people need to make sound decisions,\u201d said the acting Commerce secretary. <\/p>\n
Rabauliman has set a March deadline for CSD to submit the prevailing wage survey.<\/p>\n
Chamber of Commerce president Alex Sablan, meanwhile, said that unlike in 2013 when both the Chamber and Commerce conducted two separate surveys, the islands\u2019 biggest business organization this time would be depending on the government to do the prevailing wage and workforce assessment study by itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s being conducted by the CNMI government as it should be. It should be a government function. OIA is funding the survey and they\u2019re only funding one. We we\u2019re going to fund one but when Commerce informed us they we\u2019re going to conduct one, we thought why do two? We saw no reason to spend on two surveys which is going to accomplish the same thing,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Sablan said the CNMI developing its own prevailing wage study is important because using the prevailing wage in Guam is unfair and detrimental to the local economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crucial at a standpoint that we have a different economy here than that of Guam. The wages for an H1 employee in the CNMI is segued to Guam\u2019s prevailing wage, which is much, much higher. Our economy is different than Guam and the wage scale is different regardless of the situation. We have a different economy and we need to determine what scale we have so companies won\u2019t inadvertently be impacted here with a scale that has no relevance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chamber president said the only way the CNMI can have access to more H1 workers is for the prevailing wage and workforce assessment study to be conducted every two years as required by the federal government.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want to pay people more money. Hopefully that happens as the local economy improves. That\u2019s the point behind a true prevailing wage being done. We can\u2019t sustain it if we segue to the prevailing wages in Guam or Hawaii.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lack of an updated prevailing wage was one of the hot-button issues during last week\u2019s Society for Human Resource Management CNMI Chapter\u2019s 2014 Annual Conference.<\/p>\n
Local companies argued that as much as they would want to apply H1 visas to their qualified employees, the lack of a prevailing wage study has stymied their efforts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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