Knowing he’d have a hard time feeding his family of seven once his paychecks stopped coming, one Department of Veterans Affairs worker asked his local supermarket if it could cut him some slack on his grocery tab until the federal government reopens. The customer service staffer asked if he was kidding.
That day has arrived. The paycheck the worker receives Friday will be several hundred dollars lighter than usual, and it will be the last one he receives until a fractured Congress agrees on a spending package for the current fiscal year.
So the worker, who like all those CNN interviewed requested anonymity to protect their jobs, had no choice but to break the bad news to his children.
“We have told the kids they can’t have any snacks, and they are going to get smaller portions of food because we have to make it last,” said the employee, who is considered essential and must still report to work.
Back pay in question
Roughly 1.4 million federal employees have been furloughed or are working without pay, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center review of the major agencies’ shutdown contingency plans.
They are now feeling the reality of the shutdown. Many are due this week to receive partial paychecks, compensating them only for the days they worked before the government shut down on October 1. Others will get smaller paychecks in coming days.
And they’ll all have to rely on other financial resources from here on until lawmakers act — which does not appear likely anytime soon.
It gets worse next week, as military personnel will miss their first paycheck on October 15. That has not happened in recent prior shutdowns, said Caleb Quakenbush, the center’s associate director of economic policy. In the past, Congress passed a measure to ensure most military members continued to be paid. But on Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told GOP lawmakers in a private call that he would not put a standalone bill for military pay on the floor.
Also in past shutdowns, government workers received back pay once the impasse ended. During the most recent prior impasse in 2018-2019, which lasted a record 35 days, President Donald Trump signed into law a bill that assured that employees would be made whole.
During that shutdown, federal employees collectively had $9 billion in compensation delayed, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.
However, the White House threw into doubt this week whether furloughed staffers, who are sent home during shutdowns, would get back pay after the government reopens. A draft Office of Management and Budget memo suggested that furloughed employees need not get paid under the 2019 law, an interpretation that Trump doubled down on in remarks.
It’s not clear whether that view will prevail. Multiple Republican and Democratic lawmakers said if there was any uncertainty about the legality of back pay, Congress could fix the issue by adding language into the next spending bill.
Housing worries
One furloughed federal employee who works in public safety said that missing a paycheck or two would be catastrophic. Concerned that a shutdown was looming, he worked extra long hours in September to minimize the damage to this week’s paycheck, which he says will only be eight to 10 hours short. Still, he’s worried about how his family of four will cope financially until the government reopens.
“Even though it’s only eight to 10 hours, it matters,” he told CNN, noting he plans to find odd jobs to bring in at least a little money. “It means different groceries. It means, ‘Hey, is there a potential that we’re going to miss a couple bills or not’?”
Other federal employees interviewed said the shutdown could leave them without housing. One Bureau of Land Management worker told CNN he had been counting on his late October paycheck to cover the deposit for an apartment that his family of five is moving to after downsizing from a house. They can’t afford to stay in their expensive temporary rental for much longer, but he has been too scared to ask the new apartment manager if he could get a break on the deposit. He’s hoping the government shutdown ends within the next two weeks.
Likewise, a civilian employee of the Pentagon, who recently separated from her husband, is depending on her biweekly paycheck to pay for her new accommodation. Her paycheck on Friday will be $500, or 30%, smaller, which is already putting her in a bind.
“I am a paycheck and a half away from being unable to pay my rent,” she said. “Gas costs money. Food costs money. Utilities cost money. All of which I am not receiving currently.”
Asking for help
Several of the workers CNN interviewed reported mixed success in asking creditors for leniency during the shutdown.
The wife of one Department of Homeland Security employee told CNN she called her car loan company crying on the first day of the shutdown. The representative said the couple didn’t have to make another payment until December, and they wouldn’t be charged interest. But their mortgage company wouldn’t work with them, she said.
To get by, the couple took out an interest-free relief loan from USAA, a financial services company, to stock up on groceries for themselves and their two daughters, pay their car registrations and set a little aside for savings. But she is still worried about how they’ll get by on just her salary until the government reopens.
“I’m absolutely terrified of failing my kids and having to beg my family for help,” she said.