Judge rejects pay cuts for California state workers
Reporting from Sacramento —
More than 200,000 state employees will receive their full wages in July and August after a state judge on Friday denied an injunction sought by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cut their pay.
The Schwarzenegger administration had asked the court to order that the employees’ pay immediately be reduced to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour because there is no state budget in place.
The governor has maintained, and two courts have agreed, that state law requires the reductions as California enters the third week of the fiscal year without a spending plan. But state Controller John Chiang, who prints the paychecks, has insisted that he cannot implement the order because of the state’s outdated computer system.
