[Peach]

So American Samoa has always been excluded from federal legislation pertaining to the minimum wage and they're still excluding, is that how you're reading this?

Because that's how I'm reading this.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

the language will be "revisited" is what I understood according to Fox, Brian Wilson..

[Yo-Yo]

Yup, that's how I'm reading it.

The current (2004) law can be read here and the complete 2007 legislation (very small) can be read here, although I posted the entire text of it already.

As much as I hate to say it, I think Nancy Pants is getting a bum rap here, or else is just now getting a rap for something that she may have slipped into the minimum wage law years ago.

[conservative in nyc]

So American Samoa has always been excluded from federal legislation pertaining to the minimum wage and they're still excluding, is that how you're reading this?

That's basically what happened - except at the same time, the Democrats decided to get rid of the historic exemption for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands - leaving American Samoa alone with a lower industry-specific minimum wage.

What's the difference between the two places? American Samoa has a Democrat non-voting Congressional Delegate. The CNMI has no Congressional Delegate, but usually votes Republican for their Resident Representative to Washington (essentially, a lobbyist) and government. Because they have no delegate in Congress, the CNMI relies a lot more on lobbyists to get the things they want. The CNMI was one of Jack Abramof's big clients.

The Democrats will try to justify the disparity in part because they think the CNMI has a history of garment industry "sweatshops", and that the CNMI's labor practices need to be reformed. They also will claim that American Samoa's economy is a lot less diversified than the CNMI (which is closer to Japan and benefits more from tourism). While this might be so, the CNMI's economy has been hurting for a while now, too, and the minimum wage hike there will cause more pain - as it will for small businesses around the country.