State eyes second jobs on the taxpayer’s dime

Holding multiple jobs is hardly a rarity these days. Most people who do so, though, aren’t collecting two state paychecks.

As it turns out, milking multiple state paychecks is a fairly widespread occurrence, with 571 non-union employees holding more than one position at a time at nearly a dozen California state departments, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Gov. Jerry Brown is cracking down on the under-the-radar practice that allows many full-time state employees — including those on salaried positions such as managers, supervisors or even prison doctors — to do extra work for their departments. Most of these employees are ineligible for overtime, but whether holding a second job is illegal or not is unclear.

Often, people in managerial or administrative positions would work as technicians or application evaluators.  More than 100 people work more than one position within the Department of Social Services, which operates on federal money. The 56 CalPERS employees who held dual appointments were allowed to do so when the public pension fund administrator claimed it saved the department a ton of money.

The California Department of Human Resources said it is reviewing the practice to see if the possibility of saving money or technically being legal could warrant allowing dual appointments.

While most of us non-state employees would quickly get penalized for pulling extra shifts or working illegal overtime, these state employees in question are not in imminent danger. For now, all that’s happening is awareness of the controversial practice, with state lawmakers pledging to “look into it.”

At the end of the day, labor experts are crying foul, saying that it invites an deceptive practice of paying fixed wages for salaried jobs. Since all departments involved are mum on the subject, we’re guessing nobody is fully confident that they aren’t challenging at least some labor laws.