All CNMI employers urged to participate in PWS

CNMI employers are being encouraged to submit the information needed in the ongoing prevailing wage survey on or before April 22. The next part entails calculating the wages in each job category in the CNMI.

The survey is a requirement when petitioning foreign workers or renewing petitions for foreign workers in the CNMI.

The CNMI must establish its own prevailing wage or else Guam’s data would be used in renewing petitions of guest workers in the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker or CW-1 visa program.

Right now, the CNMI’s prevailing wage survey has been contracted out to Hive Analytic, which is involved in data analytics and economic research, that is helping the CNMI Department of Commerce, the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, and the Northern Marianas Business Alliance Corp. in collecting the data needed to complete the survey, or PWS.

The NMBAC has appealed to employers to hold off in submitting their CW-1 petitions for the coming fiscal year 2020 until they completed the data needed for the PWS. The NMBAC said that there are enough CW-1 visas for fiscal year 2020, which starts Oct. 1, since U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services indicated that only 9,000 slots out of the 13,000 available in fiscal year 2019 had been utilized.

Survey instructions and other important information on the PWS can be accessed online at cnmiprevailingwage.com. The frequently asked questions are also being continuously updated to serve as guide to employers in accomplishing the PWS.

Matt Deleon Guerrero, representing Hive Analytics, said during last Wednesday’s meeting of the Society for Human Resources Management-CNMI Chapter at the Pacific Islands Club Saipan’s Charley’s Cabaret, said all CNMI employers need to get involved in the PWS.

“The information will be sorted. We’re not getting the information directly. It is all going to a computer that can be accessed at the [local Commerce Department’s] Central Statistics Division. Make sure all information of your employees are complete since it would be very helpful for us, said Deleon Guerrero.

“Again, the deadline is April 22. If you don’t submit the accomplished survey [on or before April 22], the information won’t make it and it will be difficult for us to reach the benchmark set by the U.S. Department of Labor. The [fewer number] of survey respondents will affect the ability for us to publish your application for prevailing wage.”

And without a CNMI prevailing wage, Guam’s data will be used. If the April 22 deadline is not met or there are no respondents on a particular occupation code, Hive Analytics would issue another survey for a one-week period. They are looking to finish the PWS next month.

Deleon Guerrero said they are looking at a two-week period, the recent pay period, in determining the job descriptions of each employee—especially those who have two jobs. “Whatever job that person did in the time frame, then that’s the information to be used and listed in the survey. The position title is just to help us validate in matching the occupation.”

Hive Analytics is trying to prioritize jobs in the tourism industry, hotel and restaurant, since this is where the higher employee population is. “We’re doing everything we can so we can publish it as quickly as possible. The effort is to prioritize the calculation on the highest employee population, the hotel and restaurant industry.”