From $3.25 to $100 an hour

Private and public employees in the CNMI are paid anywhere between $3.25 an hour and $100 an hour.

Many are also paid the current minimum wage of $5.05 an hour, while many others hover over $10 an hour.

But sometimes the job titles do not necessarily translate to high or low salaries.

For example, the lowest salary for “managers, all other” under management occupations is “$4.33 an hour,” and the highest rate is $42.55 an hour.

Some companies also pay their “general and operations managers” as low as $4.66 an hour, and as high as $62.50 an hour.

These are among the results of the first prevailing wage survey conducted in the CNMI, courtesy of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, which contracted the Guam-based The Employers Council.

The Chamber received U.S. Department of the Interior funding to conduct the survey.

Besides listing the lowest and highest wage rate, the survey also lists the average and median rates, along with the standard deviation.

For example, the 142 registered nurses in the survey are paid $6.50 an hour to $20.46 an hour, while the average pay is $14.79 an hour and the median is $16.03 an hour.

A total of 8,676 employees in 408 jobs are represented in the survey results.

This is a historic first for the CNMI. For the first time, the CNMI now has prevailing wage survey results that reflect the current conditions on the islands and not the U.S. mainland, Hawaii, or Guam, which employers could use to, among other things, support applications for their employees’ H1B visa or other Immigration and Nationality Act work visas.

Contrary to its previous statements, the Chamber will now make available to the general public the results of its “2011 Survey of Wages and Salaries among Specified Jobs and Organizations in the CNMI.”

The results will be posted on the Chamber’s website, www.saipanchamber.com, as early as this week—free of charge to anyone—whether they participated in the survey or not.

Douglas Brennan, Chamber president, said yesterday that as a result of “tremendous demand for the Wage & Salary Report, SCC has decided to post the summary reports on its website as soon as the benefits portion of the survey is tabulated.”

“This will be completed within one week. SCC initially wanted to get as many organizations participating as possible, but we’ve decided it isn’t fair to deny those that need the data based upon whether they participated, or not,” Brennan said in a statement.

Earlier, the Chamber said those companies and organizations that completed the survey will receive the wage and salary summary report, a list of organizations participating in the wage and salary survey, and a document titled, “Methods and Procedures of the Survey.”

It also earlier said those who did not participate in the survey can obtain a copy from the Chamber if they pay $500.

A total of 8,676 employees in 408 jobs are represented in the survey results.

However, due to the provision that at least three organizations must report rates of pay for any given job, the rates of pay for only 7,518 persons were reported in only 188 jobs.

The Chamber distributed 452 survey forms, but 218 or nearly 50 percent were returned.

A number of companies did not participate because they were not going to apply for H1B visas or other types of work visas for their employees.

The survey covers 23 main clusters of job codes including management occupations; business and financial operations occupations; computer and mathematical occupations; architecture and engineering; legal; education, training and library occupations; healthcare practitioners and technical occupations; food preparation and serving related occupations; sales and related occupations; farming, fishing and forestry occupations; and production occupations.

“Grounds maintenance workers, all other” are paid the lowest rate of $3.25 an hour. The highest rate is $16.99 for the same job title.

“Family and general practitioners” under healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are paid $45 an hour to $100 an hour, the highest hourly rate shown in the survey.

Chief executives are paid $11 to $96.15 an hour.

Security guards are paid $4.55 an hour to $8.25 an hour, while waiters and waitresses are paid anywhere between $4.62 an hour and $7 an hour.

Accountants/auditors are paid $5.05 to $37.50 an hour.

The lowest paid construction manager is $5.05 an hour.

Elementary school teachers, except special education, are paid anywhere between $5.19 an hour and $22.60 an hour.

Teacher assistants are paid $4.62 to $9.70 an hour.

Maids and housekeeping cleaners are also paid anywhere between $3.55 an hour and $5.70 an hour.

The Chamber, the largest business organization in the CNMI with some 150 members, believes this survey report represents the majority of those employers who would apply for many of their employees fitting into specialized and professional jobs classifications where H-1B work visas will be their best available option under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s authority.