Minimum Wage Cuts for City Workers? They’re Lucky.

Apparently some government workers have yet to realize what’s happening in this country.

Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty cut everyone’s pay — including his own — on Friday, saying the state’s sixth-largest city is broke because the City Council blocked his proposed tax increase. Doherty, a Democrat, warned nearly 400 police officers, firefighters and public works employees about his doomsday plan, prompting a Lackawanna County judge to order the city to pay full wages to all employees, citing that it is a violation of their contracts. Hours later, the payday envelopes went out, and, despite the judge’s order, they were light.

“This needs to be resolved,” Scranton firefighter and president of the local firefighters union John Judge told FoxNews.com. “My members are getting a check for $7.25 an hour. These are people that are the head of their households. They have mortgages. They have other living costs. They are now going to have to throw their bills in a hat and randomly pick what gets paid on time.”

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With tens of thousands of local and state workers already being laid off due to budget cuts, the employees of Scranton, Pennsylvania should be happy that they still have jobs. According to some estimates, the recession (aka the Greatest Depression) will lead to at least 2 million job losses for government employees across the nation.

Cities and towns all over the country are on the cusp of filing for bankruptcy due to budgetary issues caused by overspending and low tax revenues as the US economy continues to slide.

Whether a judge orders the mayor to pay employees their full salaries or not makes no difference if there is no money left in the bank.

Look for federal bailouts for cities and states in coming months and years.