[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 163 (Thursday, October 25, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              MARIANAS WAGE HIKE SHOWING POSITIVE EFFECTS

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                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 25, 2007

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today to share 
encouraging news from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 
As many of my colleagues know, I have been fighting for years to ensure 
that employers in the CNMI--an American territory in the Pacific--pay 
their workers an honest wage.
  But for years, we were blocked from reforming the broken labor and 
immigration system in the Marianas. The corrupt lobbyist Jack 
Abramoff's collusion with then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay and others 
here in Congress meant that the CNMI's sweatshop-based economy 
persisted for almost two decades after we were first made aware of 
abuses there.
  Eventually, Abramoff's dishonest schemes, which caused so much human 
misery, caught the attention of law enforcement, and the web of 
corruption is now unraveled. Jack Abramoff is in prison, Representative 
DeLay no longer serves in this House, and the Congress has a Democratic 
majority.
  That is good news for the workers of America and especially those in 
the CNMI. Earlier this year, the new Congress raised the minimum wage 
across the country for the first time in almost a decade. And for the 
first time, that increase applies to the Northern Marianas. Today, 
workers there make $3.55 an hour, up from the barely $3 that workers 
there were paid for years.
  This long-overdue reform is already having a positive effect, and I 
commend to my colleagues the article below from the Marianas Variety 
(``Labor: Wage hike drives locals to seek jobs''). As the article 
explains, we still lack good data on the CNMI job situation, but the 
trend is very encouraging: the number of people looking for jobs in 
September of this year was up by an incredible 80 percent compared to 
the same period last year, according to their Department of Labor.
  For too long, thanks to policies that reinforced the low-wage garment 
industry's dominance, there were very few good-paying jobs in the 
Marianas: if you weren't willing to work for $3 an hour, you could 
either work in the public sector, or you could live on public 
assistance. But as the Commonwealth's deputy secretary of labor says in 
the article, ``There are so many people looking for jobs not only 
because they need them but because the (minimum) wage is now $3.55 an 
hour. It's waking them up to go out (and join the workforce).'' The 
bottom line is that the increase in wages is attracting jobseekers to 
private sector jobs, exactly as we predicted.
  It's an abiding shame that it took the U.S. Congress so many years to 
bring reforms to the Mariana Islands and to raise the minimum wage. And 
it was a major setback for workers there when the government of the 
Commonwealth went back on earlier attempts to raise the wage locally. 
But even though it comes years after I would have liked, I am pleased, 
although not surprised, by this early report. Under the leadership of 
this New Direction Congress, we are starting to turn things around, and 
we are beginning to see the positive results of raising the minimum 
wage.

  Paying honest wages for honest work is good for our economy and the 
right policy for our country. Members of this Congress should be proud 
that we are moving America, and the Commonwealth of the Northern 
Mariana Islands, in a new direction.

               [From the Marianas Variety, Oct. 26, 2007]

              Labor: Wage Hike Drives Locals To Seek Jobs

                          (By Gemma Q. Casas)

       The 50-cent increase on the local minimum wage in July 
     resulted in an increase in the number of locals seeking 
     employment assistance at the Department of Labor, according 
     to its deputy secretary, Alfred Pangelinan.
       He said there were 1,800 local jobseekers in September up 
     by 80 percent compared to the same period last year when 
     Labor assisted 1,000 jobseekers.
       He attributed the sudden surge to the increase on the 
     minimum wage from $3.05 an hour to $3.55 and the worsening 
     economic crisis. ``There are so many people looking for jobs 
     not only because they need them but because the (minimum) 
     wage is now $3.55 an hour. It's waking them up to go out (and 
     join the workforce),'' he said.
       He believes that as the local minimum wage increases, more 
     residents will be enticed to work in the private sector.
       The Federal Minimum Wage Act became law in May of this year 
     and it also applies to the CNMI, mandating an increase of the 
     local minimum wage by 50 cents every year until it reaches 
     the U.S. minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
       The next 50-cent increase in the CNMI minimum wage will 
     take effect in July 2008, which will raise the rate to $4.05 
     an hour.
       The Department of Labor says it is also making sure that 
     local residents who are employed get the monetary equivalent 
     of their foreign counterparts' non-monetary benefits to 
     further encourage them to work.
       Pangelinan said the real unemployment rate among the local 
     population is difficult to determine because the statistics 
     only include those that come forward and seek assistance. 
     There hasn't been any CNMI-wide survey conducted in recent 
     years to determine how many local residents are jobless.

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