FSM Information Services
Press Release
President Panuelo Announces Support for 8% Salary Increase for All FSM Government Employees; Noting FSM’s Lack of Jurisdiction for State Minimum Wages, President Panuelo Encourages State Governments to Increase Minimum Wages for Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, & Kosrae
PALIKIR, Pohnpei—On January 25th, 2021, His Excellency David W. Panuelo—President of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)—announced his public endorsement of Congressional Bill 21-04, which would increase the salaries of all public servants working for the FSM National Government by eight percent (8%).
“Public servants deserve to be appropriately compensated for their hard work,” President Panuelo said in a statement. “Too many FSM citizens, even before the COVID-19 Pandemic, have found it difficult to meet their needs for food, power and water utilities, healthcare, and housing expenses. When even our own Government’s employees opt out of Government healthcare programs because they cannot afford both healthcare and food, or when citizens must choose between a sack of rice for their family or shoes for their children, it suggests that our Nation’s wealth inequality remains as much of an existential threat to our continued sovereignty and wellbeing as Climate Change.”
Amidst voluminous calls for increasing the minimum wage, President Panuelo noted that the FSM National Government does not have the authority to increase wages for public or private sector citizens in Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. “The minimum wage in Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae is too low for citizens to live on,” President Panuelo said. “Hardworking citizens who put in their eighty hours every two weeks often find themselves with paychecks totaling one hundred dollars or less. It’s unsustainable for our Nation’s future, and drives our most talented from leaving our shores to the United States where I am increasingly hearing calls for a minimum wage of fifteen dollars ($15.00) per hour. While I am sure the FSM’s public and private sectors cannot afford a minimum wage of $15.00 an hour, I call on our State Governments of Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae to consider increasing their respective minimum wages.”