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American Samoa does have a federally mandated minimum wage, which varies by industry. The minimum wage in the tuna canneries is $3.26 per hour. The minimum wage in other industries ranges from $2.68 per hour (garment industry) to 4.09 per hour (maritime). The minimum wage rates are reviewed about every two years by a wage board.

Pelosi's hypocrisy notwithstanding, raising the minimum wage for the tuna canneries would likely cause the canneries to close. They simply wouldn't be able to compete with canneries in places like Thailand and Ecuador, where workers are already paid less than a dollar per hour. And as I understand it, American Samoa doesn't have much industry besides the canneries.

Note that American Samoa has a Democrat nonvoting House delegate. The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, whose minimum wage was raised to the federal rate, doesn't have a House delegate at all (it elects a Resident Representative, who is little more than a Washington lobbyist) but is a nominally Republican area. Jack Abramoff did a lot of lobbying for the CNMI.

The Marianas has been the subject of much lobbying.

Abramoff's Interior link gets 2 years probation
Jan 9, 2007

Stillwell, a former desk officer for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas - a lucrative Abramoff client - acknowledged receiving four tickets to a Redskins football game and two tickets to a Simon and Garfunkle concert in Washington - all paid for by Abramoff - which Stillwell did not report

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands was important to Abramoff who was hired to lobby Congress to keep open an important trade exemption. That exemption allowed garment makers there to put "Made in the U.S.A." labels in their clothing. Human rights groups argue this has fostered an exploitive working environment in the commonwealth's booming garment industry.

A former aide to Tom DeLay pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges involving the Marianas. While working in the Delay's leadership office, Tony Rudy helped Abramoff with one of his Marianas clients. According to an internal audit by Commonwealth authorities, the Marianas paid Abramoff more than $7 million in lobbying fees from 1996 to 2001. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities. Rudy has yet to be sentenced.

Stillwell told Mother Jones magazine last year that he was "in awe" of Abramoff's ability to kill a House bill back in 2000 that would have imposed federal immigration policy on the CNMI, one of his most lucrative of his lobbying clients. Abramoff "stopped it dead," said Stillwell. "It could not have been an easy job." (snip)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16541877/

Pelosi's hypocrisy notwithstanding, raising the minimum wage for the tuna canneries would likely cause the canneries to close.

So it's okay with the Democrats if American businesses close when slammed with this increase, but not okay if politically-connected businesses in American Samoa close.