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The problem here is that the territories of the United States have different minimum wages, and as it currently stands, people in American Samoa are already making a higher minimum wage than people in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Every news article I found relating this "conspiracy theory" was not from a reputable news source, and the articles I did find were poorly edited. But they did inform me that the current minimum wage in American Samoa is $3.62/hr, which is more than what people in the Northern Mariana Islands stand to make even after the wage increase--their wage will increase to $3.55 after its passage. They will pass up American Samoa after six months, when the wage will increase to $4.05 an hour.
All that this tells me is that we ought to be looking at a bigger picture of cost of living versus wage increases in the Pacific Islands, as we as mainlanders probably have little or no idea what a living wage means there. It clearly means something different than a living wage in the mainland United States. So as to whether the absence of American Samoa in the bill is fair or not--only the people of American Samoa can say.
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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