Dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic is proving to be a financial nightmare for governments around the world. Same is the case with state governments in the United States of America (USA). To deal with the difficult economic situation, California Governor Gavin Newsom decided to cut the salaries of his government's employees by 10 percent.
In order to make the cut seem less draconian, the Governor decided to impose this cut on his own salary as well as that of other top officials of his administration. Newsom's decision was implemented from last month and state government employees did receive the 10 percent cut in their salaries. However, it has come to light that the Governor got his full salary, sans the reduction applied on others.
The Mess-up
According to The Sacramento Bee newspaper, the California Governor got his pre-cut salary of $17,479 for last month. According to the report, this development has been attributed by the Governor's office to a bureaucratic oversight. Newsom has requested the Controller's Office – the authority that deals with salaries – to retrospectively apply the reductions from the beginning of last month.
But the Governor isn't the only one who didn't suffer the pay cut announced by him in May this year. Of the eight top officials in the government of California who are occupying Constitutional positions, only one has had their salary reduced. Most of these officials have also followed the lead of the governor is requesting a pay cut to be applied retrospectively.
Remedy
Luckily for the Governor, there doesn't seem to be as much opprobrium against him as would have been expected. In fact, he has received the support of the leader of California's biggest labor union. Yvonne Walker, president of SEIU Local 1000 union, expressed her faith in the bona fide of the governor's intentions.
"If there's one thing we know, it's that our governor keeps his word. We can only imagine that with all the things going on in our state... it wouldn't be surprising if processing the necessary paperwork has taken a backseat to more pressing matters," she stated. We remain confident that this will take place as promised and that it will be retroactive," Walker added.
The pay cut is only one part of the government's program to cut down spending in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. With the global economy going into a tailspin and American economy also looking in danger of suffering a setback, governments have been forced to take such measures.
