A study by UC Berkeley has exposed several holes in California Governor Schwarznegger's program of furloughs for state employees. The Governor has implemented a three-day a month furlough program for 193,000 state employees that amounts to a 14% pay cut. The program is supposed to save $1.3 billion this year, but in reality might not even save a quarter of that. The Berkeley study argues that a one-per-month furlough would actually save more money over the long-term, because the state would lose less revenue through income taxes, and hiring contract workers. The program has come under fire from other sectors as well, as evidence has emerged that a number of health care, and corrections workers, among others, are not actually taking days off, but simply working unpaid.
See "Furloughs saving less than expected, study says", Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle, October 15, 2009