The State Worker

We've had some questions about the list of departments and offices the governor's office released, describing them as "exempt" from the portion of the executive order that affects workers' pay.

Lynelle Jolley, spokeswoman for the Department of Personnel Administration, shed some light on why there may be confusion about whether EVERYONE in the listed departments would receive their full pay.

Employees in those "exempt" departments who would otherwise be subject to minimum wage would be authorized to receive their normal wages, according to the pay letter. That's because there's a reasonable expectation of overtime in those departments and their functions meet the "critical needs" criteria outlined in the executive order.

However, employees in those departments who aren't subject to the minimum wage provisions of federal labor law (most supervisors, managers, and certain professionals like attorneys and doctors) would not receive their normal wages. Instead, their paychecks will be processed the same as their colleagues in all the other departments, which according to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act would either be $455/week or, in the case of the professional categories like doctor and attorney, zero. All employees subject to reduced wages would receive full pay once the budget's enacted.

(An easy way to know if you're in a job category that's covered by federal law's minimum wage provisions is to ask if you're eligible for overtime pay: if you are, then you're covered by the minimum wage provisions.)

The same Supreme Court ruling that said workers had to at least be paid minimum wage also said employees who work overtime must be paid their regular salary, plus what they make in overtime. So the governor's executive order also bans overtime, except for the departments he has exempted. The list reflects the departments he's exempted from the overtime ban.

Most supervisors and all managers in the listed departments, however, aren't eligible for overtime - and so would still receive reduced paychecks - but at a different level than $6.55 an hour.

Here's the bottom line: if you work in those departments or offices listed, AND you are in a job category eligible for overtime, you will be authorized to receive your regular pay, plus any overtime you actually work.

If your job category isn't eligible for overtime, you will get $455 a week, even if you work in one of the listed departments.

And there is one more twist under federal labor law: there is no minimum salary requirement for certain professional occupations, such as attorneys and doctors. They would not receive any paycheck at all until the budget is signed, even if their department is exempt from the executive order. Full pay would be restored once there's a budget in place.

Jolley said the numbers roughly break down this way: Of the 70,000 employees in the listed departments, about 9,600 are managers and supervisors, and about 1,000 are in the professional category. So about 85 percent of employees in those departments would receive their full checks.

All of this, of course, wouldn't happen unless the disputes between the governor's and controller's offices over the law and the state's computer system are resolved.

For more detail, you can read the pay letter DPA sent to the controller here.