By Radio Seoul News Editorial Desk
April 20, 2025 | Los Angeles, CA
Who needs the lottery when you’ve got California government benefits?
That’s the bitter joke making the rounds after revelations that a California state employee—George , the dental program supervisor for the Department of Corrections—walked away from his retirement with a jaw-dropping $1.2 million payout in unused vacation leave. That’s not a typo. That’s a jackpot, courtesy of taxpayers.
This is not just a fluke. It’s the latest and most extreme example of a deeply broken system where state workers hoard vacation days like gold bars, cashing them out upon retirement at their highest salary rate—sometimes decades after they were earned.
By law, vacation accruals are supposed to be capped at 640 hours (about 80 working days). But in practice, thanks to weak oversight and strong public sector unions, thousands of hours are routinely banked, compounding into multi-million dollar payouts that bleed the state’s already fragile finances.
The Real Power in Sacramento? Union Veto.
Every attempt to reform this absurd policy has been killed—not by logic or law, but by the raw political muscle of public employee unions. Legislators who dare propose a fix are met with threats of strikes, campaign pressure, and political retaliation.
Union-backed lawmakers in Sacramento know the game well: look the other way, and you’ll get re-elected. Try to reform it, and you’ll be labeled “anti-worker.” So reforms fail. Again. And again. And again.
Meanwhile, hardworking Californians are hit with higher living costs, deteriorating public services, and underfunded schools—all while public sector retirees skip town with six-figure bonuses disguised as “vacation.”
In 2023 alone, over 1,000 state employees received more than $100,000 each in unused vacation payouts. The total bill? $413 million. And the liability from unpaid vacation still sitting on the books? A staggering $5.6 billion, up 45% since 2019.
This isn’t just bad budgeting. It’s structural corruption.
A National Outlier
While other states impose strict vacation accrual caps and “use-it-or-lose-it” policies, California forbids expiration of unused vacation. Even states like New York and Texas have strict payout limits and convert excess vacation into non-cashable sick leave.
Not California.
Here, the longer you delay taking a vacation, the bigger your payday—especially if you wait to retire with a high salary. The incentives are perverse, the results shameful.
A Government That Works for Whom?
The public rightly asks: “Who is this system really serving?”
It’s not the single mother waiting on a DMV appointment.
It’s not the parent worried about school budget cuts.
And it’s certainly not the future generations who will inherit this fiscal mess.
This is not governance—it’s legalized looting, wrapped in bureaucratic language and defended by those who benefit most.
Until the public holds both politicians and unions accountable, the looting will continue—one padded paycheck at a time.
