I think the problem isn't that they can't change pay. It's that it's terribly difficult to change the pay for a hundred thousand workers (I'm assuming the CA g

I think the problem isn't that they can't change pay. It's that it's terribly difficult to change the pay for a hundred thousand workers (I'm assuming the CA gov. employs that many). For instance, let's say that you calculate an employee's salary as: Position Salary * Location Variance + Yearly Boost * Number of Years Employeed. That seems simple. The program stores those variables and outputs a number for each worker. Now, if you tried to get everyone to $6.55/hr ($11,921 per year), you'd be in a pickle. You aren't storing wage or salary. So, there's no way to adjust someone's salary. Even if you consider variable wage/salary increases per year (vary by person and by year), you could still have a system that didn't give you a salary. So, I can see how that would happen. What I can't understand is why they can't just get a list of employees and send that to their bank and say, give them all $458.50 every two weeks! So, I can buy that they can't alter their system - these types of things can be made in the most stupid ways. Why they can't just get a list of employees and cut them all equal checks doesn't compute.