Schwarzenegger orders minimum wage for state workers

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Published: Thursday, Jul. 1, 2010 - 4:37 pm
Last Modified: Thursday, Jul. 1, 2010 - 5:01 pm
The Schwarzenegger administration today ordered State Controller John Chiang to reduce state worker pay for July to the federal minimum allowed by law -- $7.25 an hour for most state workers.

The instructions from the Department of Personnel Administration exclude roughly 37,000 state workers in six bargaining units that recently came to tentative labor agreements with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Some employees, such as doctors and lawyers, would get no pay because federal exempts them from any minimum wage requirement. Managers,
supervisors and others who don't get paid for working more than 40
hours per week would receive $455 per week until a budget deal got done.

Schwarzenegger has invoked a 2003 state Supreme Court decision as grounds for the move. That ruling, White v. Davis, held
that without a budget that appropriates money for state payroll,
employee wages can be withheld to the federal minimum. That condition
exists today, which is the start of the 2010-11 fiscal year and the
state is without a budget. The back pay would be paid once a budget is
enacted.

The administration issued similar instructions to Chiang during a budget impasse in 2008. The controller refused to comply over concerns that doing so would violate federal law. He also asserted that
the state's decades-old computerized payroll system couldn't handle the
complexities of changing the pay for 240,000 state workers affected by
the governor's instruction.

Calls to the Controller's office seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/01/286...er-orders-mini...

[Ayatollahgondola]

In my opinion, the governor is trying to force the senate and assembly to stay and work, as opposed to taking the summer break.
This could help increase exposure to our scheduled event though