There was a recent report in the Associated Press that the House of Representatives Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat out of California, has told the the House Labor Committee that she wants to make sure that the federal minimum wage bill—now waiting on the results of the debate over the war on Iraq (more on that to come)—should include all of the territories of the United States, which include American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and our topic at the moment, Guam.
What will this do to places that are far separated from the normal daily stream of events in the continental United States. Well, as we saw in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the territory’s minimum wage there is actually higher than the current federal minimum wage, as well as the new proposed and increased federal minimum wage through the end of 2008.
In the territory of Guam, the federal minimum wage increase, on the other hand, could have a bit of a larger impact, being that the Guam minimum wage has been $5.15 per hour since 1997, when the federal minimum wage increased last to that level. Some will yell at me—and I can hear you yelling at your computer monitors now—that the Guam minimum wage is set to increase again this year to $5.75 per hour, occurring this coming July 1, 2007. The new Guam minimum wage after that increase will be $5.75 per hour.
But guess what? Even at that level, the new Guam minimum wage will still be lower than the new federal minimum wage if and when the federal minimum wage bill passed the president’s desk, which some could say would happen as early as before the start of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. In that case, 60 days after the president signs that bill, the federal minimum wage would increase to $5.85 per hour—10 cents more. But then in 2008, a year after the first increase, the federal minimum wage would go up again to $6.50 per hour, a bit higher than the prospective Guam minimum wage. A year after that—in 2009—the federal minimum wage would be set to go up again, this time to $7.25 per hour.
In each case of the federal minimum wage increase, employers would be left in Guam with a number of questions—the first one being will the territory of Guam’s government and labor department raise the Guam minimum wage to keep pace with the federal minimum wage. If that is the case—and I will need to do some additional research to find that out for you—then employers will have no great difficulty in knowing what to pay their lowest paid workers.
No matter what, employers in the territory of Guam can rest assured knowing they must get themselves new federal minimum wage posters if and when the president of the United States signs the federal minimum wage bill.
But then comes the next question—what occurs if the Guam government does not raise the Guam minimum wage to keep pace with the federal minimum wage increases, and the Guam minimum wage remains at the $5.75 per hour level through 2009, say? Then what would happen to the employers there? You guys would have to figure out what minimum wage to pay your employees the old fashioned way—by getting to know the Fair Labor Standards Act, and whether or not you are excluded from following that federal wage and hour law collection. As a U.S. territory—as Nancy Pelosi made clear—the citizens and employers of Guam largely fall under usual American laws and regulations.
