Govt to conduct census—not survey sample—of businesses

Two weeks after the public release of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce’s prevailing wage survey results, the government will conduct its own “census”—not a survey sample—of all public and private businesses in the CNMI starting with the training of its survey staff next week.

The government census is broader in scope than that of the Chamber’s survey that the U.S. Department of the Interior funded for $16,500 in technical assistance grant.

The Chamber’s “2011 Survey of Wages and Salaries among Specified Jobs and Organizations in the CNMI” is intended mainly for employers who will apply for H-1B work visas for their employees. It was the first ever prevailing wage survey conducted in the CNMI.

Ivan A. Blanco, director of the Department of Commerce’s Central Statistics Division, said the government will hire enumerators “to visit all businesses and conduct interviews and complete survey questionnaires.”

Blanco cited three things that make the government survey different from that of the Chamber’s.

“First, it’s a census of all business entities in the CNMI and not a survey sample,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Second, he said that Commerce’s CSD is mandated by Public Law 7-35 to conduct such surveys in the CNMI and businesses are encouraged to provide data that CSD requests for.

“At the same time, confidentiality of data collected is protected and penalties of breach of such provisions are covered under the same law,” Blanco said.

Besides prevailing wage data, Commerce’s CSD is also going to “collect information that will be used for local labor force training programs and for business policy decisions,” he added.

Survey staff training is set for the week of Oct. 17 to 22, “and field data collection commences right after training is completed.”

Blanco said there are an estimated 1,400 business establishments in the CNMI with some 16,000 employees.

He said private and public sectors are covered in the survey scope.

For public sector entities, Commerce’s CSD is working closely with Department of Finance to gather administrative data that will be used for the survey report.

Private sector entities with employees will be visited by enumerators and will have a questionnaire completed for them.

These are releasable data that are not “confidential and identifiable” in nature,” Blanco said.

Because the government census covers both private and public entities, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce is also encouraging businesses to cooperate in the government census.

Richard Pierce, Chamber executive director, said at a Strategic Economic Development Council meeting in early July that the Chamber “agreed to assist the CNMI in its census, as the CNMI agreed to provide us data we needed for our survey that’s available now online.”

Based on the Chamber survey, private and public employees in the CNMI are paid anywhere between $3.25 an hour and $100 an hour.

Results of the Chamber’s survey are now available online at www.saipanchamber.com, free of charge to anyone interested in the information.

Pierce reiterated that the Chamber conducted its prevailing wage survey for employers applying for H-1B visas only.

“Most employers were anxious as the government had yet to conduct any survey for the inevitable day when those wage rates would be needed. I assume the CNMI census would need to have data delineated from a general business census for wage rates depending upon the visa classification needed for individual petitions,” he said.

Government data collection is expected to be completed in four to six weeks. Data editing and tabulations follow immediately.

Blanco said $15,000 has been “encumbered” for the survey, while additional funding for enumeration and other costs are being sourced from the local government.

“We welcome any additional federal funding to support this project,” he said.

The government awarded a $15,000 sole-source contract to Data Talks for the prevailing wage survey.

The Fitial administration applied for an over $40,000 grant with the U.S. Department of Labor for the survey. It’s not yet known whether Labor had rejected the application.

Another Chamber member said that, had the Chamber not initiated a prevailing wage survey, the government won’t have scrambled to do something on its own.

“One man’s work is another man’s inspiration,” he said.