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Guam senator wants study on wage hike and lower tax rate
Lower tax rate may accommodate incremental minimum wage increase
HAGATNA, Guam—Sen. Chris Duenas announced yesterday that he would like to see a study commissioned on the impact of increasing the minimum wage while simultaneously reducing taxes.
“While no one can deny that the cost of living has increased the last decade and people can use more money in their pockets, we need to ensure that we are shaping common sense policy that allows our mom-and-pop businesses to adjust to a proposed minimum wage increase. What we don’t want to see is people losing their jobs because a small business can only pay three people the increase instead of four, or food prices increase to accommodate higher wages,” Duenas said.
He said the best way to get people out of a minimum wage situation is to provide them job skills that allow them to secure higher paying jobs. In 2011, Duenas authored and introduced three scholarship public laws:
– Growing Guam’s Workforce Scholarship Program (P.L. 31-128) provides students the ability to experience postsecondary education.
– Building Guam’s Trades Scholarship Program (P.L. 31-180) caters to students who are seeking careers in the construction industry.
– Every Child is Entitled to a Higher Education Scholarship Program (P.L. 31-129) requires each scholarship recipient to work with an academic adviser to develop a contract between the student and UOG detailing the academic plan to obtain a degree within a specific timeframe.
“While I support putting more money in the hands of our working families, we cannot legislate people out of poverty; we have to educate them out of poverty. Educating our workforce is key to meeting the rising cost of living on Guam and improving the quality of life for our working families,” Duenas said. (PR)
