The American Samoa Chamber of Commerce chairman, David Robinson, says the business association is pleased that the U.S. Congress has voted for a delay in the application of further minimum wage increases till 2015.
The U.S. House yesterday approved a U.S. Senate bill which includes a provision to delay the wage hikes, which was due to go into effect the 30th of September this year.
Mr Robinson says Congress is to be thanked for preventing further economic calamity in American Samoa.
He says preventing continual increases to the minimum wage would have lead to additional layoffs in the local fragile economy.
He also says that thousands of local workers have lost their jobs and experienced reduced benefits since the minimum wage increases were announced in 2007.
Mr Robinson says the Chamber is an advocate for fair wages for all classes of employment in all business sectors and it supports reasonable increases in wages as and when economic conditions can support them.
