FORMER Gov. Carl Gutierrez’s decision to drop out of the Public Auditor race, and focus his efforts on helping the Democrats maintain their current legislative majority and hold on the delegate’s office, has caused quite a stir among the island’s political circles.

In speaking last week about Uncle Carl’s then-pending decision, Guam Democratic Party executive director Carlo Branch said that one important reason he should jump back into the partisan fight would be to prevent the Republicans from implementing a lower minimum wage on Guam.

This statement was apparently drawn from Gov. Eddie Calvo’s publicly expressed support at the Republican convention in Tampa last month for his party’s platform. As was reported yesterday in the Variety’s special feature on the two party platforms, the Republican one does indeed say, “The Pacific territories should have flexibility to determine the minimum wage, which has seriously restricted progress in the private sector,” so we can’t say that Branch’s charge is entirely without merit.

Calvo’s spokesman, Troy Torres, seemed to think that it was, however, and hit back by noting, “The governor has never proposed to reduce the minimum wage at all.”

To the best of our knowledge, this is true, and we strongly suspect that this phrase was inserted at the request of CNMI Gov. Benigno Fitial and his contacts in the national Republican Party, rather than anyone at Adelup. Unlike Guam, the CNMI is still in the process of bringing its minimum wage up to the federal level of $7.25 an hour, and with the economy there in a state of near collapse, many business owners just don’t know if they can bear the extra cost.

In light of their dire economic straits, President Barack Obama has already put off the mandated 50 cent annual increase once, and may do so again.

This is not to say, however, that we agree with the territorial minimum wage plank in the Republican platform.

The national minimum wage may be $7.25 an hour, but it is far from a living wage. Someone working eight hours a day, 40 hours a week at the minimum wage takes home only $15,080 a year – before taxes. This is barely enough for a single person to live a very frugal life, and doesn’t even come close to meeting the needs of a family. Nationwide, however, some 21 percent of minimum wage workers are, in fact, the sole breadwinners of their families. Any family of three or more living on one minimum wage salary is automatically well under the official United States poverty line of $19,090.

Worse, the minimum wage has not even kept pace with inflation, and is actually down from what it was in terms of purchasing power. Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage in 1968 would have been $8.54 per hour – about 18 percent higher than our current rate. For people living at the very edge of poverty, that difference is huge.

In extraordinary circumstances like those in the CNMI, special exemptions to the minimum wage might well be needed – but we must never forget that families also need a living wage.