08.06.2008
According to The Sacramento Bee, the antiquated payroll system in use by the State of California to pay it’s employees would require at least six months of reconfiguration to issue federal minimum wage checks to state employees. The culprit is apparently the fact that the entire payroll system is COBOL-based, a near-death computer language popular in the 1970s. As the post reports:
“COBOL programmers are hard to come by these days,” said Fred Forrer, the Sacramento-based CEO of MGT of America, a public-sector consulting firm. “It’s certainly not a language that is taught. Oftentimes, you have to rely on retired annuitants to come back and help maintain the system until you’re able to find a replacement.”
That puts Governor Schwarzenegger in a tough position as he just fired the best candidates for systems reprogramming (the part time workers and consultants) in order to conserve cash.
(via slashdot)
