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Lolo to GAO: “We will NOT enforce the next minimum wage hike”

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fili@samoanews.com

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Speaking at last week’s cabinet meeting, Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga said he told the visiting four-member team from the US Government Accountability Office, that “we cannot enforce” the next federally mandated minimum wage hike for American Samoa.

The GAO team spent at least a week last month on island conducting assessments of the impact of a minimum wage hike on the local economy. The team held an exit conference on Oct. 24th with the governor and other ASG officials.

“I have expressed our position on minimum wage and I said it very clearly [to the GAO team], as far as I know, I cannot enforce the [next] minimum wage mandated” by Congress, the governor said during the cabinet meeting, which was taped for broadcast later on KVZK TV.

While Samoa News has reported on the governor’s official letter to the GAO in previous  editions regarding the minimum wage, Lolo’s verbal statement at the cabinet member was directed to the general public viewing KVZK-TV. This was his official public statement on the issue.

“Financially we cannot afford it and the time is not right” for another minimum wage increase, he said. “I cannot… put the next administration on the line,” to enforce the next minimum wage mandated by Congress because it will result in the serious downfall of American Samoa, he added.

He said the “best thing out of this” for all cabinet members “who were involved in this exercise, is getting to understand more and more on how we can deal,” with such a situation when it arises.

“It’s the private sector we are concerned with,” Lolo said, adding that if something happens to StarKist, that leaves only the government as the pillar for the local economy.  He said 6,000 jobs in the private sector are dependent on the cannery and related industries, and “that’s the life of our people”.

And “it will take a long time for us to recover if something happens,” to the cannery, he continued, adding that the US Department of Interior as well as the federal government “knows it very well.”

Lolo pointed out that American Samoa is unable to move its economy forward due to “factors beyond our control” and “federal policies is the number one factor” impacting the government and American Samoa. “We cannot diversify our economy with the kind of policies set by the federal government.”

He told the cabinet, “our message was clear” to the GAO “and they know we cannot enforce the minimum wage.

“As long as I’m governor in the … months left [in my administration], I’ve said it straight to the GAO team, to be prepared because we will not enforce the next minimum wage hike,” he said, adding that the government sector employs about 5,000.

In his letter, Lolo told the GAO team that the current method of determining American Samoa’s minimum wage “is not acceptable, because it does not avail the opportunity to us to participate in the process”. He suggested adopting a new method “that will ensure our participation”. (See Samoa News edition Oct. 28th for details).