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California Gov. Cuts State Workers’ Pay to Minimum Wage |
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) decided state workers should bear the brunt of the pain caused by his inability to work with the state legislature to adopt a budget.
He signed an executive order yesterday that cuts the pay of 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.65 an hour. On top of that, the order lays off 22,000 part-time and temporary workers.
But state Controller John Chiang, who issues the paychecks, says he won’t go along with what he terms a “cynical ploy” to win passage of a state budget with deep cuts to working family programs. Schwarzenegger says state workers would receive any lost pay after a budget is approved.
Schwarzenegger’s pay cut is part of the battle between the legislature and the governor over enacting a state budget that would close a $15.2 billion budget deficit. Schwarzenegger and Republican legislators want to close the gap by making deep cuts in public services, including education, child care, public safety and other working family programs.
Says California Labor Federation spokesman Jeremy Smith:
Any time you cut workers’ pay—add on top of that the fact that he’s cutting workers’ pay to the federal minimum wage, which is much lower than the California minimum wage—we think is anti-worker. We can’t figure out why the governor thinks he should penalize them for the inability to get a budget passed.
Schwarzenegger claims that without an approved budget, the state would face a cash crisis and the only way to avoid that is to slash workers’ pay. Chiang reports the state has enough money on hand to pay all of its bills through September.
State Sen. Pat Wiggins (D) says, in a statement:
The governor’s using state workers as pawns. They’re innocent bystanders in this process. Why should they suffer? Their salaries don’t make up a significant percentage of the state budget, so his action won’t solve the problem.
We’re talking about secretaries, clerks, maintenance workers and many others who have families, mortgages and bills to pay. These are dedicated civil servants—mental health workers, state highway engineers, safety inspectors on farms and others—who keep our state functioning. There is no justification for forcing this burden upon them.
Democratic lawmakers and others, including the California Labor Federation, say closing tax loopholes—better enforcement and collection of existing taxes and new sources of revenue like the one that allows wealthy Californians to buy yachts tax free—can help close the deficit and protect services.
State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D) says:
This regrettable action undermines the state’s shaky economy, inflicts hardship on 200,000 hard-working Californians who have nothing to do with the state’s budget stalemate and reduces services to everyone who visits a DMV office, expects safe highways or needs other state assistance.
Cutting state services reduces the quality of life for all Californians; that’s why the Democrats have a plan that avoids gutting education, health care, higher education and transportation by balancing the budget with a mix of cuts and new revenue.
While Schwarzenegger wants state workers to struggle by on $6.65 an hour, David Dayen of the California Progress Report points out the governor wants his fat-cat friends to shell out far more for a fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith. Last year, Smith was part of the Republican gang that filibustered and held hostage the legislation that increased the minimum wage.
It’s big money he’s after, too—$1,000 for lunch and if you want to get out the cheap seats in the bleachers, it will cost you $2,500 for priority seating. But wait. There’s more. For just $10,000, you can have your picture taken with Arnie! Writes Dayen:
The annual salary for a state worker under the federal minimum wage, based on a 40-hour work week and a 50-week year, is $13,100.
So Arnold thinks the cost of getting a picture with him is roughly equivalent to the cost of working for an entire year running his state government.
Priceless.
3 Comments
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I remember in the not too recent past that it was it was Governor Schwarzenegger that wanted to put the states surplus $ into a rainy day account. I thought that was a great idea when I heard about it but the politicians in Sacramento wanted to give the money back. We sure could use that money now!
The only answer now is to layoff enough State workers so the rest can continue to receive their full wages.
That’s an ‘I told you so’ if I ever heard one!!!
I believe if I were one of the state workers in California affected by this I would take the next 5 working days off and see how many others would join me.I’d do my best to shut the state down.These people are taking the hit just because the state can do it do them.I believe also I would be talking to some lawyers about breach of contract.
Perhaps the governor, and legislators, and judges, and all the legislators staff could be reduced to minimum wage. I know it wont hurt the governor, and probably most of those other people, but at least they might get an idea how it is to work for minimum wage. They should reduce all their perks too, and see how they like it. They never seem to care how all this affects workers families, and the communities in which they live. Just imagine how much money businesses are going to lose because of lost business. Then they will be laying off employees too. All these states that are having problems with budgets is because our government has allowed all the good paying jobs to be exported to China, and India etc. Our country was set up to run on tax money from people with good paying jobs. Low payed people don’t pay very much tax, and some require taxpayer help for food , subsidized rent, medical care, school lunches and etc.
I don’t believe our so called elected servants are servants. They give theirselves lavish salaries, and benefits, aand look at the mess most of our states and country is in. I know in my area every government representative is independently wealthy, and none of this stuff affects them.
Thank you for allowing me to express myself.