{
  "id": "RL30235",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL30235",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 350774,
      "date": "2008-03-12",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T03:36:16.146296",
      "title": "Minimum Wage in the Territories and Possessions of the United States: Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act",
      "summary": "The minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is generally applicable to any state, territory, or possession of the United States such as Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Implementation has been gradual, though the ultimate objective has been, consistently, to raise wages to the highest level that \u201cis economically feasible without substantially curtailing employment.\u201d\nIn 1937 and 1938, when Congress crafted the FLSA, there appears to have been little concern about its impact upon the U.S. territories and possessions. In 1940, the act was amended to permit Special Industry Committees (SICs) to visit Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to assess their economies and to make recommendations for a sub-minimum wage in certain industries. In 1956, the same procedure was instituted for American Samoa. Guam had always been under the act (though it may not have been implemented). The CNMI, in setting forth the terms of its association with the United States, had retained control over its own insular minimum wage.\nBy the 1980s and early 1990s, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands had emerged from the SICs procedures and come fully under the FLSA. Two territories remained to be accounted for: American Samoa and, in a different context, the CNMI.\nIt was generally assumed that the mainland minimum wage applied to American Samoa though it had not been implemented. During the early 1950s, the Department of the Interior moved to attract a new industry to the island group: namely, tuna canning. The first company, Van Camp Sea Foods, asked Congress to grant an exception from the FLSA and, in 1956, the Puerto Rican model was adopted. The exception remained in place until 2007 when, under the FLSA amendments of that year, the SIC system was abolished and the federal minimum wage, in steps, would be applied.\nThe CNMI was acquired by the United States in the aftermath of World War II. When, in the mid-1970s, it became a Commonwealth in association with the United States, the CNMI retained control over its minimum wage and certain aspects of immigration and trade policy. A decade later, in the 1980s, congressional hearings uncovered what were alleged to have been \u201csweatshop\u201d practices involving the garment and tourism industries. With the 2007 FLSA amendments, the federal minimum wage will be applied, in steps, to the CNMI.\nIn the 110th Congress, several bills (H.R. 2, H.R. 976, H.R. 1591, H.R. 2206, and H.R. 5154) dealt with the minimum wage for Samoa and/or for the CNMI.\nThis report will be updated as warranted.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
      "formats": [
        {
          "format": "HTML",
          "encoding": "utf-8",
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL30235",
          "sha1": "7cd7d51f919cb80f4befdde528807c5f51e8e5ab",
          "filename": "files/20080312_RL30235_7cd7d51f919cb80f4befdde528807c5f51e8e5ab.html",
          "images": null
        },
        {
          "format": "PDF",
          "encoding": null,
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL30235",
          "sha1": "f9eb049beb87b52204d16b529a45ea99da4a147b",
          "filename": "files/20080312_RL30235_f9eb049beb87b52204d16b529a45ea99da4a147b.pdf",
          "images": null
        }
      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs"
  ]
}