Schwarzenegger directed that the pay of nearly 140,000 rank-and-file employees be cut to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. About 30,000 management employees would be paid $455 a week, and another 8,000 workers, mostly doctors and attorneys, would get nothing. All those workers would get the remainder of their normal paychecks after the budget is approved.
The controller has refused to implement the Terminator’s evil plan, hence the lawsuit. Withholding pay does nothing to solve the gaping California deficit so all it does is hold state employee’s pay hostage to Schwarzenegger’s cynical, heartless plan.