The head of American's Samoa's Commerce Department says the US federally mandated minimum wage hikes are detrimental to the territory's economy and need to be done away with.
The governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga has directed the Department to come up with a living wage for local workers and prepare a justification package requesting Congress permanently remove it from the automatic minimum wage hikes.
The Commerce director Keniseli Lafaele says the objective is to come up with a living wage that the average local family can survive on, while not being a burden on the economy.
"We're coming up with a living wage that's appropriate to our territory and our economic development goals and objectives and we'd like to solve this once and for all to make it based on our local situation here."
Keniseli Lafaele says they have to offer competitive wage rates in order to attract foreign investors to the territory.
American Samoa's next minimum wage hike is scheduled for September next year.
