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NMI’s 2020 Prevailing Wage Study now with USDOL
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres has already submitted the Department of Commerce’s 2020 Prevailing Wage Study report to the U.S. Department of Labor last Aug. 18 for review and approval.
In response to Saipan Tribune’s inquiries, Commerce Central Statistics Division Director Justin Andrew said Wednesday last week that U.S. Labor will publish the 2020 Prevailing Wage Study once they conclude their review and approve the survey results.
Andrew said anyone can access and get a copy of the Prevailing Wage Study report once it is published on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website. He said a link to the report has yet to be provided pending U.S. Labor’s approval and publication.
The Prevailing Wage Study report is conducted annually to meet the requirements of the NMI U.S. Workforce Act of 2018. Its primary purpose is to determine the types of occupations that exist in the CNMI economy and to measure occupation-specific hourly wage rates for each of the occupations found.
“A recommendation is not required,” Andrew said.
Speaking on behalf of Torres and his leadership team, Commerce Secretary Mark O. Rabauliman said he is thankful to their partners at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and all its members and the rest of the businesses and the public agencies that took time out of their busy schedules to provide data for this important report.
In preparation for next year’s Prevailing Wage Study, Rabauliman is reaching out to those who were not able to complete the 2020 study and any newly formed businesses to log on to their data collection portal at cnmidata.commerce.gov.mp/ and register.
Commerce started collecting data for the 2020 report last June 11 and concluded last July 10.
According to Commerce earlier, preliminary results of the study show a response rate of 70%, with 713 businesses registered, 632 reporting over 15,000 total employees with 487 occupational titles recorded.
Andrew said it’s very important that the survey gathers information from all CNMI businesses and employers to ensure that an hourly wage rate is derived from the maximum number of Occupational Titles available for employers when applying for CNMI-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) visas.
