Shutdown Back Pay Required By Law

Many federal employees received renewed furlough notices last week when the government shutdown reached the disastrous one-month mark. The renewals were exact copies of the original furlough notices with one major exception: the sentence about retroactive pay was eliminated.

The law is clear that federal employees receive all back pay that was missed over the course of a shutdown, and NTEU intends to make sure that law is enforced.

As a reminder, NTEU endorsed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act when it was signed into law by President Trump in 2019.

Here is what the law says: “Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

NTEU members have been speaking up about the financial stress this shutdown has caused their families, and we urge Congress and the administration to reach an agreement to reopen government and pay federal employees as soon as possible.