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California Can't Perform Pay Cut Because of COBOL
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Aug 05, 2008 02:41 PM
from the handwaving-only-gets-you-so-far dept.
from the handwaving-only-gets-you-so-far dept.
beezzie writes "Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a pay cut, to minimum wage of $6.55/hr, for 200,000 state workers — because a state budget hadn't been approved yet. The state controller, who has opposed the pay cut on principle and legal grounds, now says the pay cut isn't even feasible because the state's payroll systems are so antiquated. He says it would take six months to go to minimum wage, and nine months more to restore salaries once a budget is passed. The system is based on COBOL, according to the Sacramento Bee, and the state hasn't yet found the funds or resources, in ten years of trying, to upgrade it." The article quotes a consultant on how hard it is to find COBOL programmers; he says you usually have to draw them out of retirement. Problem is, if there were any such folks on the employment rolls in California, Gov. Schwarzenegger fired them all last week, too.
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snydeq writes "Sure 'legacy systems archaeologist' ranks as one of the 7 dirtiest jobs in IT, but COBOL skills might see a scant revival in the wake of California's high-profile pay-cut debacle. After all, as Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister points out, new code may in fact be more expensive than old code. According to an IDC survey, code complexity is on the rise. And it's not the applications that are growing more complex, but the technologies themselves. 'Multicore processing, SOA, and Web 2.0 all contribute to rising software development costs,' which include $5 million to $22 million spent on fixing defects per company per year. Do the math, and California's proposed $177 million nine-year modernization project cost will double, McAllister writes. Perhaps numbers like those won't deter modernization efforts, but the estimated 90,000 coders still versed in COBOL may find themselves in high demand teaching new dogs old tricks."
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i knew it (Score:5, Funny)
This brings back memories of when we picketed our COBOL professor christmas party with signs of:
"COBOL raises taxes"
we couldn't have been more right
Re:i knew it (Score:5, Funny)
PWN3D YR PAYROLL.
I wonder if the guy who maintains the COBOL is sitting in an SF jail right now - he'll only tell the Mayor what the name of the right functions are..
Parent
COBOL. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:COBOL. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:COBOL. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:COBOL. (Score:5, Interesting)
If you ask me, this is all payback for the original design of COBOL. If they had just extended FORTRAN and required any one interested in looking at code to have a 3rd graders grasp of math, California wouldn't be in this position and existing COBOL programmers wouldn't have to lie about their development language when talking to other developers.
Actually, this story is about how California can't screw their state workers to make a political point, right? I guess COBOL wins after all, but they really should have made the syntax a little more like befudge.
Parent
Programmers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, wait; you don't. This is just more politics...
Re:Programmers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Programmers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but I would need a high degree of evidence to show me what a pay rate change would require reprogramming.
And I work with a COBOL system.
Parent
Re:Programmers? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems to me the people who should get their pay cut are the governor and legislators. They're the ones who haven't produced a budget.
Don't give them back pay either - every day there's no budget is another day they lose a payday - forever. That might encourage them to get their job done on time.
Parent
Re:Programmers? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's clearly 1960s and 1970s code. It probably has the pay rates hard-coded in, rather than using a database, because back then memory was expensive and logic had to be compact.
Parent
Great programming job! (Score:5, Funny)
The programmers of California have created the greatest payroll application of all time. You can only raise salaries, not lower them. Ingenious!
Wrong! (Score:5, Funny)
They created the worst payroll application of all time... it takes 50% longer to raise them back!
Parent
rule #1 (Score:5, Insightful)
Read in an Arnold voice: (Score:5, Funny)
I need a COBOL programmer, who is your daddy and what does he do?
Re:Read in an Arnold voice: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Uhh... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have never seen a payroll program that has the wages hardcoded in it... there is no reason that this can't be done... she simply doesn't want to.
When you pay minimum wage for labor... (Score:5, Insightful)
Problem is not lack of programmers.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Problem is not lack of programmers.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is this person is lying. Seriously, wages change all the time; probably at least once a year people get reviewed and get raises; you're going to tell me there's a 9 month backlog?
And why on earth would it take 50% longer to raise them back up again? That makes absolutely no sense.
There's only one obvious conclusion: the state controller is lying.
Parent
Take ours (Score:5, Funny)
We have about 20 Cobol programmers. We still run CISC and what have you. You can have them. Cheap.
Sounds like B.S. to me (Score:5, Insightful)
If (as someone above stated) a programmer is required to update what should undoubtedly be database fields containing salary information, then it sounds like a problem of implementation, and not one of technology/language of choice.
Its not because of COBOL (Score:5, Insightful)
Its because of poor coding skills.
Convenient scapegoat there they have.
Should just fire everyone (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a lot easier to just fire them with the software is what they are telling us.
Seriously if California is in a budget crisis how will they pay firefighters and hospital staff? You can pay everyone full wage now and in 10 months stop paying EVERYONE entirely.
In a business with this kind of budget problem you simply lay people off. People who work for the state are up in arms over this, but I've been laid off a number of times. You just fill out your unemployment insurance paperwork and get like 1/4 to 1/2 your salary after a few weeks, and look for a new job in the meantime.
I'm not sure why unions act like every person should be guaranteed a job. What universe you have to live in for things to be so certain?
Time-consuming? (Score:5, Funny)