WASHINGTON — Just days before the height of the holiday season, a government shutdown could leave hundreds of thousands of federal workers in the lurch, putting future paychecks in jeopardy.
Many workers will be laid off, while some workers will be required to report to work if their job is deemed essential. In either case, federal employees will receive back wages when the shutdown ends, although no new salaries will be generated after the funding deadline passes at 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday.
“While the law guarantees retroactive payment, bills, rent and other financial obligations do not wait, leaving families with a difficult choice to make this holiday season,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees union.
According to guidance from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, federal employees’ paychecks for their work from earlier in December would not be delayed. Meanwhile, paychecks reflecting work from the second half of the month may be affected depending on the length of a closure.
Members of Congress are still paid in full during a shutdown.
During a government shutdown in 2018 and 2019, approximately 800,000 government employees were laid off or worked without pay. In 2013, around 850,000 people were furloughed every day, at the height of that year’s shutdown.
“Most of our regular paychecks change live paycheck to paycheck. But it’s the holidays, so these guys have already spent their savings on buying Christmas gifts,” said Johnny Jones, a Transportation Security Administration official and Dallas union official . Fort Worth International Airport. “The politicians will be the real Grinches here.”
Jones said members of his union are already discussing how to return or pawn holiday gifts to have enough money to weather a possible government shutdown.
He expressed anger at newly elected President Donald Trump and his ally Elon Musk, who essentially killed a 1,500-page bipartisan funding bill that would have kept the federal government funded until mid-March. (Trump and Musk backed a revised version of the bill, but it was defeated in the House of Representatives on Thursday evening.)
“The entire workforce expected that there would be funding for the first few months of the year,” Jones said. “Then, before you know it, Trump and Elon Musk rule our lives.”
Joe Shuker, a 66-year-old union official and TSA officer at Philadelphia International Airport, said he and his colleagues missed several paychecks during the 2018-2019 shutdown.
“We had boys going to food banks after missing the initial check,” he said. “If you’re a 26-year-old man with kids, a mortgage, car payments – they were struggling, and food was number one on the list. They had to choose between putting gas in the car or putting food on the table. .”
Shuker added that a shutdown adds stress to an already high-stakes job.
“We look for bombs for a living. It’s stressful enough,” he said. “If an employee is worried about their kids’ food and how they’re going to get to work the next day, that’s a lot.”
Federal employees who have been furloughed or required to work will be paid retroactively, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Employees have previously received wages retroactively, and Congress passed a bill in 2019 that ensures that laid-off employees receive their wages back in the future.
However, federal contractors are treated differently. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, federal contractors often do not receive back pay.
“It’s really a dark day when an unelected billionaire like Elon Musk can undermine a negotiated agreement at the eleventh hour, frankly, by playing with the livelihoods of hardworking people like our members in the federal buildings,” he said. Jaime Contreras, Executive Director. vice president of 32BJ SEIU, whose members include government contractors in the Washington, DC area.
Contreras said his union represents about 2,400 federally contracted workers, including security guards, cleaners and food service workers. During previous government shutdowns, he said, many members did not receive money.
“They have been loyal workers in the federal government, and this is just not the way we should handle this.” [them]whether they are government employees or contracted government employees,” Contreras said. “It’s just plain wrong.”
Bonita Williams, a federally contracted cleaner at the State Department for 18 years, said securing food would be the most difficult part of weathering another government shutdown.
Williams, 62, has five children and 13 grandchildren. She said all of her children also work for the federal government, and during a previous shutdown they went to a food bank that once ran out of supplies in times of need.
“I’m angry because it’s not going to be a vacation, because you have to save your money because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Williams said. “You have to think: Do you want to buy food? Or do you want to buy Christmas gifts for your grandchildren?”
“I’d rather see them with food on the table,” she said.
Williams said if she is hit with another government shutdown, she won’t be able to help her family as much as usual. During the previous government shutdown, Williams continued to work and get paid, but her children were out of work.
“I was working for me, my kids and my grandkids, and I’m just one person,” she said, adding that she was late on rent and received a disconnection notice on her electric bill.
“We all struggle with it, and it’s so stressful that sometimes you wake up in the morning and you just don’t want to get out of bed,” she said. “You cry, you cry, you cry. But you can’t turn to anyone because they’re going through the same thing you are.”
Megan Lebowitz reported from Washington, D.C., and Daniel Arkin from New York City.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
