State furloughs and deferred payments -- do they violate the law...

Matt Brouillette (of Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives) posts an interesting question on their blog this morning...

PA State (ok, Commonwealth) workers have been forced to accept deferred payments during protracted budget negotiations. They are not alone, this happened in California too...

Due to this involuntary deferral of compensation, it may be possible that Pennsylvania is violating the Federal Minimum Wage Act. Each violation is subject to a $1000 fine per successful claim.

It will be quite interesting to see where this leads. I don't imagine many state workers will file complaints, but even if only a few do, it would certainly generate some attention.

Here is the link to the article: http://cfpolicyblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/is-rendell-violating-federal-minimum.html