The Department of Commerce is expected to release today the findings of the prevailing wage survey that they have been conducting since early this year.<\/p>\n
Commerce Secretary Mark Rabauliman, together with the department\u2019s Central Statistics Division director Alfonsis Sound, presented the report to Gov. Eloy S. Inos at his office yesterday.<\/p>\n
According to Rabauliman, the meeting with the governor \u201cwent very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the support of the administration and funding source from the Office of Insular Affairs we want to give them thanks and we really appreciate the governor for his time,\u201d Rabauliman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe presented it in a fashion where we hit some of the points that he was curious about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor is pleased that finally we are able to get this out,\u201d Press Secretary Ivan Blanco said.<\/p>\n
Rabauliman added that they had discussions with the governor with regards to the technical side and making the survey better in terms of capturing data.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a lot of good ideas but it\u2019s more of working towards making [the survey] more efficient,\u201d Rabauliman told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Sound added that he will also be meeting with the Department of Labor as they are partners in conducting the survey.<\/p>\n
Minor revisions<\/p>\n
Commerce officials declined to disclose yet the findings of the survey as they wanted to finalize the whole report. Some minor revisions are needed but the data gathered in the survey are all complete.<\/p>\n
Showing initial pages of the report to Saipan Tribune, the report is comprised of four sections including data on occupation, educational attainment, and hourly wages in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout divulging too much, I can almost safely say that it\u2019s almost comparable to 2011. No real deviation from there,\u201d Rabauliman said.<\/p>\n
Sound noted that the instrument that was used in 2011 was also used in the latest survey.<\/p>\n
However, Blanco noted that unlike the 2011 survey, which included all the businesses in the CNMI, the 2014 survey only included all the businesses on Tinian and Rota and a random selection of companies for Saipan.<\/p>\n
He also said that comparisons from the 2011 and 2014 data were not included in the latest report.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we expect is that all the occupations that will be reflected in this report were [those] that were reflected in the 2011 report,\u201d Blanco said.<\/p>\n
Important for the business community<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s most important is the businesses will be able get updated information and then use that when they hire new workers,\u201d he added<\/p>\n
The prevailing wage survey is important to CNMI businesses when hiring workers under the H1 visa category.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need the prevailing wage survey to hire H1 visa,\u201d Sound said.<\/p>\n
Blanco said that the survey is awaited for by many in the industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that businesses, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, has been calling for this,\u201d Blanco said, \u201cI think all the businesses will be happy to have it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The wage survey was started on January. The initial part of the survey, which was data gathering, was completed sometime in April and was then followed by data analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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