Jeff Bingaman: “This process has worked well and has successfully raised the minimum wage in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands up…”

“This process has worked well and has successfully raised the minimum wage in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands up to the national minimum wage. The process currently applies in American Samoa which continues to have regular increases in its minimum wage toward the national level. However, this Special Industry Committee process does not apply in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, CNMI, because the minimum wage provisions of the FLSA have never applied there. Section 503(c) of the Covenant to Establish the CNMI in Political Union with the United States--approved by P.L. 94- 241--specifically authorized Congress to extend the national minimum wage to the CNMI and, in 1998 the Committee Energy and Natural Resources favorably reported legislation Senate Report 105-201 that would have extended the national minimum wage as authorized. That legislation would also have extended the FLSA's Special Industry Committee transition provisions to the CNMI just as they apply to American Samoa. On March 1, 2006, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held an oversight hearing to examine economic conditions in the islands and we found the situation in both the CNMI and American Samoa very worrisome.”