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Second round of PWS awaits approval
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Posted on Jun 10 2019
The second round of the CNMI Prevailing Wage Survey was completed last May 17 and was immediately submitted to Gov. Ralph Torres who, in turn, transmitted it to the U.S. Department of Labor for approval.
It was learned at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce meeting last week at Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan that the first and second rounds of the PWS captured the biggest number of employees to date.
“Initiating the first survey on April 8, 2019, we captured occupational wage data from 937 employers. Together with the second survey, a total of 19,621 employees were captured and this figure has surpassed the total coverage of the last three PWS,” said Chamber president Velma Palacios. “In total, we are submitting 315 wages for consideration and that is a big thing.”
The Chamber and the Northern Marianas Business Alliance Corp. hired Hive Analytics and Data Talks last March to conduct the survey.
The CNMI-based survey is needed to set the salaries of foreign workers who will be petitioned to the CNMI under the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker program.
The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification already approved the first round of the survey in mid-May.
In an earlier interview, Hive Analytics president Matthew Deleon Guerrero said the occupations gathered for the first round of the survey were mostly from the tourism industry and occupations within the restaurant and food industry.
The survey’s second round included occupations not covered by the first round.
