The US President Barack Obama has signed into law Senate Bill 2009 which defers the next 50 cent increase in the minimum wage of workers in American Samoa until 2015.
The bill was passed by the Senate last December and was only approved by the House of Representatives last Tuesday.
The bill suspends the 50 cent increase mandated in the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 for 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The last increase in the minimum wage was in 2009.
Congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin says the signing will give American Samoa time to assess the best way to determine local wages.
"We now have some breathing space and hopefully for the next 3 years that this is going to be a very serious effort on the part of the government, our business community, our working people that everybody so that we will come out with a fair and very equitable wage to determine what would be the proper wages or should be the proper wages for our workers."
American Samoa's Congressman, Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin.
