He said he wouldn’t do it... because he isn’t able to do it.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=9482
He says his staff tried in 2003 to see what it would take to rewrite the computer code to lower pay. “And after 12 months, we stopped without a feasible solution and with the knowledge that recovery for such a sweeping adjustment to minimum wage would take at least six months before all employees would see the right amounts in their hard-earned paychecks,” he says
Mr. Chiang also says if the lower pay were to go into effect, California government might be violating California law.
“The governor’s order to pay California state workers only the federal minimum wage would put the state in the awkward position of violating its own labor law,” he says. “Since Jan. 1, California law has required all California employers to pay their workers at least the $8 minimum wage set by the Legislature.”
More:
http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/1132910.html
The massive pay cut would exhaust the state’s antiquated payroll system, which is built on a Vietnam-era computer language so outdated that many college students don’t even bother to learn it anymore.
Democratic state Controller John Chiang said Monday it would take at least six months to reconfigure the state’s payroll system to issue blanket checks at the federal minimum wage of $6.55 per hour, though Schwarzenegger insists such a change should occur this month.
Experts say Chiang isn’t joking when he describes the state’s payroll system as a computing relic on par with vacuum tubes and floppy disks.
“It’s an example of a number of computer systems in which the state made a large investment decades ago and has been keeping it going the last few years with duct tape,” said Michael Cohen, director of state administration with the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
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Chiang said.. the state cannot logistically retool its payroll system in a matter of weeks as the governor has asked. And if the change eventually were made, Chiang said it would take an additional nine to 10 months to issue back pay to employees when the budget is approved.
“Pragmatically, we just can’t get the system to work in a timely manner for us to implement payment of minimum wage,” Chiang said.