US Officials seek wage rise delay in Pacific states
Updated
Three United States senators and a congressman want to put off a rise in the minimum wage in the Northern Marianas and American Samoa.
Radio Australia's Gemma Casas reports from Saipan that Senator Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and two Hawaiian senators, including American Samoa's congressman, have supported delaying the yearly automatic wage increase of 50 cents in the Northern Marianas and American Samoa's minimum wage.
The minimum wage in American Samoa's tuna industry is $US3.76 an hour.
The Democrats successfully included the islands in a wage hike measure passed last year by having it as a "rider" in the 2008 Iraq funding bill.
American Samoa and the Northern Marianas strongly lobbied against the next round of wage increases next month, amid concerns over the impact it will have on their tuna and tourism industries.
