The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas welcomes an indepth study into the effect of the minimum wage rise on its economy.
On Monday the minimum wage in the CNMI and American Samoa increased another 50 cents to $4.05 an hour, and will continue to rise incrementally until it reaches the federal level of $7.25 an hour.
The Senate has approved a provision in a war spending bill that called for more wage studies in the CNMI and American Samoa.
Under the Senate version of the Iraq war supplemental funding bill the provision requires the U.S. Government Accountability Office to study the impact of the first two minimum wage hikes in both countries.
Our correspondent in CNMI, Mark Rabago says the study will consider a number of issues.
"So they are going to look at y'know how this affects businesses, how this affects employers, how this affects the buying power of people and to see what other impact this essentially US$1 increase for the year will do to the CNMI economy and American Samoa.:"
Mark Rabago.
