In the latest drama unfolding in the not-so-golden state, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered massive salary cuts in an effort to avoid debt default and pass a budget.

The governor placed 200,000 state employees on minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) for the rest of this month, or until lawmakers agree on how to solve a massive $19 billion state deficit. Employees would be retroactively paid the rest of their salaries after a budget is passed.

California is out of money again and stopped paying vendors on Thursday.

State Controller John Chiang, who cuts the state’s paychecks, initially refused Schwarzenegger’s order, saying that he would not comply while the issue was still before the courts. Two years ago, Schwarzenegger first ordered the salary reductions, but Chiang refused to obey—sending the issue to the court system. On Friday, a California appeals court upheld Schwarzenegger’s order, saying that he had the authority to reduce salaries when the state simply did not have the money to pay them.

Chiang so far has refused to implement the minimum wage salaries, saying that he is reviewing the ruling and will not implement the order unless a judge specifically tells him to. Chiang may appeal to the California Supreme Court.

According to Chiang, the other reason he will not comply is that California’s accounting computer system does not allow his office to adjust some workers’ wages and not others.

With unemployment above 12 percent, hundreds of thousands of other workers across California are not so fortunate as to work for employers with computers systems that refuse to compute wage reductions.

California is facing one of the toughest economic times in its history. If things keep going as they are, at some point soon there will be a lot more people wishing for that minimum wage job.