‘Federalization created urgent need for prevailing wage study’

The owner of HR Support and one of the founding members of the CNMI Chapter of the Society for Human Resources Management said the ongoing prevailing wage study was brought about by the federalization of CNMI immigration.

Frank Gibson, who also writes the twice-a-month column “HR Matters” for the Saipan Tribune, said that federalization means employers can no longer bring employees to the CNMI under the previous immigration laws and regulations.

“Any non-U.S. workers brought into the CNMI after Nov. 28, 2009, require a U.S. visa,” he said in an email to the Saipan Tribune.

To obtain an H1-B visa, the employer must pay the “prevailing” wage for the area of employment. The prevailing wage is the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation.

“The CNMI does not currently have recognized prevailing wage rates so a sponsor applying for an H1-B visa for an employee is required to pay the prevailing wage for Guam or …the United States, which is significantly higher than what is being paid in the CNMI,” Gibson said.

A prevailing wage study for the CNMI, he said, will result in wages more reflective of the average wages being paid in the CNMI.

H1-B visas, however, only apply to specialty positions that require a bachelor’s degree or higher and the employee must possess that degree from a school that is considered equivalent to a U.S. college.

“Only workers in these types of positions can be placed on visas. The non-specialty positions and employees can be placed on a CNMI-only CW visa that will allow continued employment at or above minimum wage some several years into the future until that visa status is ended. At that point there is no existing legal work or immigration status for most contract workers to continue working in the CNMI.”

Contract workers in specialty positions include accountants, lawyers, doctors, teachers, computer programmers, and analysts, among others.

Gibson said a prevailing wage is not required to be paid to employees in a CW status.

U.S. citizen workers, meanwhile, stand to actually benefit from the paying of prevailing wage to foreign workers, he said. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, hiring a foreign worker should not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of U.S. workers comparably employed.

“So, if the prevailing wage increases wages for visa-holders, those U.S. workers performing the same work should be paid at the same rate.”