SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger on Monday announced that her office has finished processing payroll for July 15, ensuring that all state employees will receive their scheduled paychecks without interruption.

The action comes after a St. Clair County Court last week granted Munger’s request to pay all state employees in order to comply with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and avoid potential fines totaling three times the amount of missed payrolls.

Munger said paying all state employees is the right, legal, and fiscally responsible thing to do and she appreciates the Court’s authorization to move forward, and that they are simply compensating workers for services they are already providing the state and ensuring that we are in compliance with federal law.

She commented that to do otherwise would not only cause hardship to tens of thousands of employees and their families, but also make the state vulnerable to staggering penalties that we cannot afford.

The Fair Labor Standards Act requires the state pay “covered” employees at minimum wage or face fines from the federal government.

However, Illinois’ antiquated payroll systems make it impossible to swiftly determine which of the state’s 65,000 employees fall under the designation.

Even when the respective employees are identified, the antiquated systems require Comptroller’s Office personnel to manually enter tens of thousands of reductions in pay rate and corresponding changes in deductions and benefits.