Free Republic

An independent commission that sets salaries for state officers is about to impose a 10 percent pay cut for members of the Legislature and statewide elected officials from the governor on down. The pay cuts appeared all but certain Wednesday after a harried series of events that began when the California Citizens Compensation Commission fell one vote shy of ordering the salary reductions starting late next year. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promptly declared support for the pay cuts – and immediately appointed three additional commission members to help pass them. Members of the compensation commission voted 3-1 in favor of the...

In Ireland, "the game is up" Unrest brews as the government implements crisis measures to save the economy. By Conor O'Clery - GlobalPost Published: February 4, 2009 08:14 ET Updated: February 4, 2009 13:41 ET DUBLIN — At 2 a.m., with time for compromise running out, the Irish prime minister finally presented his emergency plan for the floundering economy to the country’s trade union leaders. He proposed an average 7 percent reduction in gross pay for bureaucrats, teachers, police, firefighters, road cleaners and everyone else on the public payroll, in the form of a levy to finance their pensions. He...

S'pore ministers' pay may be cut 20 pct this year-media Reuters - Tuesday, January 20 SINGAPORE, Jan 20 - The annual salaries of Singapore's ministers and senior civil servants are expected to fall by 12 to 20 percent this year in line with the shrinking economy, local media reported on Tuesday. Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also minister in charge of the civil service, told Parliament on Monday that senior permanent secretaries and entry-grade ministers will likely receive S$1.54 million , which is a drop of 20 percent from last year. Younger officers in the elite Administrative Service...

DETROIT (AP) -- American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. boosted its wage offer and increased the payments it will give workers to take a wage cut as part of a tentative agreement that could settle an 11-week strike by the United Auto Workers union, a person briefed on the deal said Saturday. American Axle had been offering a pay cut from $28 to $17 per hour for production workers, with a $90,000 wage "buy down" over three years to help workers make the transition to lower pay. The person, who asked not to be identified because the deal has not...

The pay of a former staffer of Inland Rep. Jerry Lewis was cut less than a year before she took a job with a Washington lobbying firm, enabling her to avoid a rule prohibiting high-ranking congressional staff members from lobbying their old bosses or committees for one year, House records show. Letitia White worked as an assistant to Lewis, R-Redlands, on the House Appropriations Committee before leaving to take a job as lobbyist in 2003 with the firm then known as Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton & Shockey. Congressional staff members who earn 75 percent of a House member's salary are...

THE Da Vinci Code is one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year but its significance to Hollywood may go deeper than mere box office success: Tom Hanks has delighted his studio bosses by accepting a pay cut for his role as the book’s art sleuth hero.

<p>SACRAMENTO – The state's powerful prison guards' union, considered nearly untouchable by some lawmakers, has agreed to discuss possible salary reductions with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, potentially saving the state millions at a time of fiscal crisis.</p> <p>The union, granted a roughly $420 million, five-year contract in 2001 by former Gov. Gray Davis, agreed to the talks Wednesday during a meeting between union President Mike Jimenez and Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Pat Clarey. A union representative said the talks could start as early as next week.</p>

White House Wins Fight on OT Rule Changes WASHINGTON - Foes of the Bush administration's proposed rules changing which workers would qualify for overtime pay abandoned their fight Friday in the face of unrelenting pressure from the White House and the House. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the chief Republican opponent of the new rules, agreed to drop a provision killing the regulations from a massive spending bill, lawmakers, congressional aides and lobbyists said. Critics of the new rules said they could lead to 8 million Americans losing eligibility for overtime pay, largely white-collar workers earning more than $65,000 a...

Haz duty pay cuts in Iraq as reported by the San Fran Chronical. Opinions please in response to some of my kooked out liberal friends who are now all of a sudden so feigning concern for the safety and well being of our boys in Iraq.

The Associated Press For spouses of Missouri National Guard soldiers called to active duty in the war on terrorism, loss of companionship is bad enough. Then there's the loss of income many face because the military doesn't pay as much as the soldiers made in their regular jobs back home. There's uncertainty about how long the soldiers will be gone, and constant fear that a husband or wife will be harmed in the line of duty. And now, unless Congress renews stipend increases approved in April for soldiers sent away from their families and into a war zone, many are...

DEMS' DESPERATE DECEPTION Apples & Oranges: Democrats Wrongly Confuse Military Salary With Imminent Danger Pay · Wrong On Both Counts _____________________________________________________________________ APPLES: IMMINENT DANGER COMPENSATION WILL NOT BE REDUCED Undersecretary Of Defense For Personnel And Readiness David Chu Confirms Compensation Will Not Be Reduced.  "I'd just like very quickly to put to rest what I understand has been a burgeoning rumor that somehow we are going to reduce compensation for those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  That is not true. We are not going to reduce their compensation. · What I'm saying on the record for Iraq and Afghanistan, absolutely yes,...

Empire on the cheap Pentagon's sneak attack on soldiers' combat pay News-Journal editorial Last update: 15 August 2003 Speaking to cadets at the Citadel in South Carolina on Sept. 23, 1999, Candidate George Bush sounded outraged. "Thousands of members of the armed forces are on food stamps," he said. "Many others in uniform get Army Emergency Relief or depend on their parents. This is not the way that a great nation should reward courage and idealism. It is ungrateful, it is unwise, and it is unacceptable." Bush liked that last line so much that he repeated it, word for word,...

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Moving to quash a political firestorm, the Pentagon on Thursday denied that it will cut the pay of nearly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by $225 on Sept. 30 when special military pay hikes approved by Congress are due to expire. Defense officials said that even if lawmakers do not reinstate increases passed in April in both "imminent danger pay" and "family separation allowances," the Pentagon will make up the pay losses to troops in those countries in other ways. Undersecretary of Defense David Chu answered sharp criticism from Democratic presidential candidates over...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Pentagon officials met Thursday with reporters to "put to rest" a "burgeoning rumor" that the defense department is planning to reduce compensation for those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. "That is not true. We are not going to reduce their compensation," said David Chu, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "There is an open issue about how we're going to do that which depends on exactly how the conference report in the Congress comes out on some technical allowance issues, but the bottom line is we will at least maintain the compensation of those...

  United States Department of DefenseNews ReleaseOn the web: http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2003/nr20030814-0368.htmlMedia contact: media@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact: http://www.dod.mil/faq/comment.html or +1 (703) 428-0711   No. 600-03 IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 14, 2003 DoD Statement on Family Separation Allowance and Imminent Danger Pay In April, after the President's Budget was submitted, Congress authorized an increase in both the Family Separation Allowance (on a worldwide basis) and Imminent Danger Pay and legislated that these increases would expire on Sept. 30, 2003.  The department is aware of the problem that would result for those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan if these allowances were...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moving to quash a political firestorm, the Pentagon on Thursday denied that it will cut the pay of nearly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by $225 on Sept. 30 when special military pay hikes approved by Congress are due to expire. Defense officials said that even if lawmakers do not reinstate increases passed in April in both "imminent danger pay" and "family separation allowances," the Pentagon will make up the pay losses to troops in those countries in other ways. Undersecretary of Defense David Chu answered sharp criticism from Democratic presidential candidates over a press...

<p>Washington -- The Pentagon wants to cut the pay of its 148,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, who are already contending with guerrilla-style attacks, homesickness and 120- degree-plus heat.</p> <p>Unless Congress and President Bush take quick action when Congress returns after Labor Day, the uniformed Americans in Iraq and the 9,000 in Afghanistan will lose a pay increase approved last April of $75 a month in "imminent danger pay" and $150 a month in "family separation allowances."</p>

<p>The governor's appointees will thus be in the same boat as state workers.</p> <p>Gov. Gray Davis' appointees can expect their pay to shrink by at least 5 percent as a gesture to thousands of state workers who will be asked to shoulder similar cuts, aides said Wednesday.</p>

<p>Calling it "the right thing to do" in light of the state's budget problems, freshman Sen. Jeff Denham has asked the state to reduce his $99,000-a-year salary by 5 percent.</p> <p>The Salinas Republican was sworn in earlier this month to represent the 12th Senate District, which includes Merced County and part of Stanislaus County. He would be the only legislator to cut his salary, a state controller's office spokeswoman said.</p>