The minimum wage rates for American Samoa are set by a special industry committee (29 U.S.C. 205, 29 C.F.R. Part 511) appointed by the U.S. Department of Labor, as required by the Act.

If you look at the minimum wage rates published therein you will find:

Bottling $3.19/hour
Construction $3.60/hour
Finance and Insurance $3.99/hour
Fish canning $3.26/hour
Garment manufacturing $2.68/hour
Government employees $2.91/hour
Hotel $3.00/hour
Petroleum marketing $3.85/hour
Printing $3.50/hour
Hospitals and education $3.33/hour
Publishing $3.63/hour
retail, wholesale, warehousing $3.10/hour
Ship maintenance $3.51/hour
Shipping $3.88 - $4.09/hour
Tour and travel services $3.48/hour
Miscellaneous $2.70/hour

So, don't you think that the Washington Times might have, as usual gotten its facts wrong either accidentally or (dare I say it) on purpose?

This was a hatchet job, pure and simple. The new minimum wage law merely continued the status quo, as anyone who wanted to determine could find out with less than ten minutes internet work.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/as00_faleomavaega/minimumwage2007.html

Yes, that evil, evil Nancy Pelosi, this was all part of her get-rich-quick-by-giving-favors-to-a-tuna-packing-company scheme. Surely this is on the same level as being bribed by a lobbyist, sending sexual email to minor, and giving a blow job to a gay hooker for some crystal-meth.

Thats the spirit Michael, long live crony capitalism and special interest politics!

So what Pelosi should be doing is not looking out for her constituents? And when did Tuna packers become a special interest?

By the way, did anyone bother to ask why American Samoa wasn't included? I'm guessing the bill itself didn't mention Pelosi's desire for crony capitalism, so why was it excluded?

Conservative bloggers all over this Moonie Times piece bellowing that Nancy Pelosi is exempting a big tuna company from the new minimum wage law because the corporation is based in her district: On Wednesday, the House voted to raise the minimum wage f...

A bigger problem is now the Speaker has been exposed as not really caring about the little guy (not that the Dems ever did). The whole message this week is has been one of Dems saying a lot but not backing any of it up. Good. Some of us knew they couldn't back up such rhetoric with real policy changes.

Fancy Nancy is pure politico and this week has hammered that message home.

It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. Thank God Bush is there with his veto pen.

Wait a minute, did Steve just call the act of supporting legislation that benefits the people whose interests you were elected to represent “cronyism”?

Thats the spirit Michael, long live crony capitalism and special interest politics!

Any union that agreed ed to such a stupid - -from their perspective -- arrangement would probably have died long ago.

I challenge you to cite a specific union contract that has such a contract.

The House overwhelmingly approved the first increase in the federal minimum wage in nearly a decade ...

The real story is to follow the money. Many union labor contracts have their wages set as multiples of the minimum wage. The minimum wage legislation isn't about helping those earning minimum wage, but a massive legislative payback for the millions of dollars of donations from the unions to the democrats.