Back pay after fed shutdown? Don't bet on it

A government shutdown next week would jeopardize the paychecks of more than 800,000 federal workers who could be told to stay home. More than 2 million other employees who are deemed essential by the government -- including the active military -- would be entitled to their salaries but might not get paid on time.



"It's a very different time and a very different Congress," said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 150,000 federal workers. "I'm concerned when employees who were here remember that last time employees were paid and think it will happen again, because it's not a given at all."

After the past two shutdowns in the 1990s -- when federal workers were furloughed for five days in November 1995 and 21 days from December of that year into January -- Congress passed a bill awarding them back pay.

Even if Congress fails to resolve its budget standoff by the deadline Monday and much of the government runs out of money, civilian and military personnel who are considered vital to national security, public safety, health and welfare would be called to work -- about 1.3 million civilian employees and 1.4 million in the military.




If a shutdown lasts just a few days, it probably would not affect paychecks that are scheduled for mid-October. But even the government's heavily automated payroll system needs several days' notice to set its gears in motion, so if a shutdown ended a day or two before paychecks at a given agency are due, those employees deemed "essential" could have their pay delayed, several union and government officials said.

Compared with the shutdowns of the 1990s, a much larger number of federal workers are in danger of being furloughed this year, because Congress has not passed a single funding bill. In the past, Congress had passed appropriations bills that funded various large agencies, including the Defense Department, meaning they could continue to operate even if other parts of the government could not.



"The President and the Secretary know that the uncertainty of the current situation puts our civilian workforce in a difficult situation and, should a lapse occur, it could impose hardships on many employees and disrupt important national security projects," Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter wrote Monday in a memo to Defense Department employees.


If Congress does not pass a temporary budget by late this week, federal workers will get an e-mail or phone call from their supervisors telling them to report for work or remain at home.



"We think we have a very strong case to make that we are total victims of the standoff in Congress," said Jacqueline Simon, public policy director at the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union. She said the union plans a "huge grass-roots political mobilization" to fight for back pay if there is a shutdown.

"Every member of Congress will be hearing from their constituents who are federal employees," she said.


"If there's savings to be achieved by not paying 1/8the federal employees 3/8 and we've got a conservative Congress that says, 'They didn't work. Why would we pay them?' . . . it's a lot more problematic as to whether precedent would apply this time around," said G. William Hoagland, a former Republican staff director of the Senate Budget Committee who is now senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center.


For millions of federal retirees who may be concerned about their monthly annuity checks, which arrive on the first day of each month, the Office of Personnel Management said they would be paid on Oct. 1 as normal.

-- Lisa Rein is a writer for The Washington Post