A few months back, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger let it be known that if the state's legislators couldn't agree a budget by 1 July, state employees would be placed on the federal minimum wage, $7.25 per hour. Their pay wouldn't ultimately be lost, but would be withheld, paid back months down the road once a budget was agreed on. A handful of banks and credit unions responded by promising to front their customers the lost wages, so that they wouldn't personally feel the pain; but many other banks have said they won't do so.
To his credit, John Chiang, the state's comptroller – essentially the man responsible for writing the state's checks – announced that he would refuse to implement Schwarzenegger's change unless courts ordered him to do so.
Now, July has rolled around. Predictably, the state's stalemated legislators haven't come up with a viable budget, and equally predictably, Schwarzenegger has announced that up to 200,000 workers will have their salaries slashed to minimum wage for the July pay cycle. Over the coming weeks, a power battle will play out between Schwarzenegger and Chiang over whether and how to implement the pay reduction. Governor Schwarzenegger argues that he is only following the law; and he's doing so because, he says, without a budget, California simply doesn't have the money to pay its workers' salaries.
So is that very rich and husband of an elitist going to work for minimum wage? Schwarzenegger is a piece of .....
But the other thing the people of California brought this on themselves by only allowing 1% property tax increase per year since the 78 due to Proposition 13..
Link to the rest
..we can't have public sector position holders even temporarily exposed to real world tribulations faced by rank and file private sector peons on a daily basis.