Schwarzenegger pay plans thwarted by COBOL
/v3-uk/news/2006727/schwarzenegger-pay-plans-thwarted-cobol
07 Aug 2008, Iain Thomson , V3
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans to reduce all state employees pay to the minimum wage are being blocked because the payroll system is run on COBOL.
Schwarzenegger signed an executive order last week to cut the salary of the state's 200,000 employees to the minimum wage until the state budget, currently 36 days behind schedule, is passed.
But State Controller John Chiang told the Senate Committee on Governmental Organisation that this was impossible as the payroll system was written 30 years ago in COBOL and there weren't enough programmers to do the job.
Chiang estimated that with current resources it would take six months to make the change, and then nine to 10 months to reverse them.
"Pragmatically, we just can't get the system to work in a timely manner for us to implement payment of minimum wage," Chiang said, according to the Sacramento Bee.
He has said he will ignore the order and issue cheques as normal because of the issue.
"It's an example of a number of computer systems in which the state made a large investment decades ago and has been keeping it going the last few years with duct tape," said Michael Cohen, director of state administration with the Legislative Analyst's Office.
COBOL, or Common Business Oriented Language, was developed in 1959 and was hugely popular for use in legacy systems, particularly in military and government systems.
But concerns over the Year 2000 problem led to many such systems being replaced with more modern code and the supply of trained COBOL programmers has shrunk rapidly ever since.
"COBOL programmers are hard to come by these days," said Fred Forrer, the Sacramento-based chief executive of MGT of America, a public-sector consulting firm.
"It's certainly not a language that is taught. Oftentimes, you have to rely on retired annuitants to come back and help maintain the system until you're able to find a replacement."
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
COBOL skills remain vital
The suggestion that the problems facing the state of California are due to its reliance on COBOL is a little perplexing, given that it, like the rest of the world, runs much of its day-to-day activities on COBOL-based systems, many of which date back a number of decades. From stock exchanges to major government departments, these systems have continually showed their value to the organisations they serve, and it is because of this that so many remain in place today.
What this situation has shown is that it is vital to ensure the global workforce is equipped with the skills required to maintain and modernise these business critical systems. For organisations worldwide, COBOL applications remain at the very heart of their daily activities, and it is the responsibility of governments and businesses alike to guarantee that there are sufficient numbers of skilled practitioners to maintain these essential systems.
Posted by Julian Dobbins, Director, Product Management, Micro Focus, 08 Aug 2008
Not very likely...
Consider this : if you tell an employee to reduce the wages of the entire workforce, what are the chances that someone in that workforce will tell you it can't be done?
How do they maintain these systems if they have no COBOL programmers?
I suppose making COBOL the scapegoat does show a creative imagination on someones part.
Posted by Colin Lodge, COBOL Programmer, 09 Aug 2008
COBOL is great
or should I say was.
COBOL is not a career move. Well not in London go and search for a job on CWJobs and see (you only get about 10 hits).
I am not saying that COBOL is not used but if it work then don't touch it. There are billions of lines of COBOL but no jobs, so COBOL is dead from the point of view of a career.
Posted by Peter, 13 Aug 2008
Out Source
Maybe you could out source your COBOL to London. We only have 7 jobs advertised here. I am sure there must be plenty of skills here in COBOL and also it will help people like myself get a job as a developer.
Posted by Peter, 02 Sep 2008