The Saipan Chamber of Commerce and the Hotel Association in the Northern Mariana Islands are asking for another postponement of the federally mandated 50-cent hike in the territory's minimum wage.
The next increase is set to take place in September this year, but the business groups want it delayed until a new economic impact analysis is done.
They believe that such increases cannot be absorbed without business failure and job loss.
The CNMI minimum wage is now 5 US dollars 55 cents an hour.
The minimum wage hike, which aims to bring pay in outlying territories up to the mainland level, was deferred in 2011 at the request of the same business groups, but it went ahead last year.
