Why do federal workers receive back pay after a shutdown or furlough?

[Anonymous]

Honest question: I've heard that in the event of a government shutdown leading to federal workers being placed on furlough, they are eventually compensated for their lost wages once the shutdown concludes. What's the rationale behind this policy? It seems that during the furlough, no productive work is being performed, and the majority, if not all, private contractors do not receive any retroactive compensation. Moreover, the shutdown itself is usually a result of insufficient funding or disagreements regarding future funding.

Just trying to understand, thanks!

[Anonymous]

Do you actually have to ask? Because otherwise we would quit and because it’d the right thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest question: I've heard that in the event of a government shutdown leading to federal workers being placed on furlough, they are eventually compensated for their lost wages once the shutdown concludes. What's the rationale behind this policy? It seems that during the furlough, no productive work is being performed, and the majority, if not all, private contractors do not receive any retroactive compensation. Moreover, the shutdown itself is usually a result of insufficient funding or disagreements regarding future funding.

Just trying to understand, thanks!

It's not a policy, it's a law.

If your point is that private contractors should also receive back pay, I won't argue with you.

[Anonymous]

Federal workers shouldn’t be punished by politicians ineptitude.

[Anonymous]

I challenge your assumption that no productive work is being performed (as someone being asked to work).

There are labor laws that require the payment of wages in exchange for work performed within a reasonable timeframe. These protections exist for everyone. It seems insane to require someone to work and then not pay them for it.

[Anonymous]

Because nowadays they are still working. Very few are actually exempt from working. Shouldn’t they get paid for working?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest question: I've heard that in the event of a government shutdown leading to federal workers being placed on furlough, they are eventually compensated for their lost wages once the shutdown concludes. What's the rationale behind this policy? It seems that during the furlough, no productive work is being performed, and the majority, if not all, private contractors do not receive any retroactive compensation. Moreover, the shutdown itself is usually a result of insufficient funding or disagreements regarding future funding.

Just trying to understand, thanks!

You are trying to understand why people who aren't fired but cant get another job/have to drop everything the moment funding is provided/cant get unemployment in some states/work nights and weekends to make up for the lost time....get retroactive pay?

Really?

Regarding private contractors their employer is the contractor not the government and their employees SHOULD walk out. My contracting company pays us during shutdowns AND has taken out loans during previous ones because it is no fault of ours/theirs/etc.

You should be asking why shutdowns happen or why they continue to happen when nothing gets earned from them besides chaos and confusion. You should wonder why certain factions of a party cant come to a compromise. You should wonder why certain individuals are so negative towards federal government employees and yet, thousands of them working make our country function. You should ask people who work in the federal government what they do and the services they provide so you can understand that there are jobs you cant even conceive of because you don't know the programs exist. For example, lending out bug specimens from the Smithsonian OR data/specimens from previous NIH-funded studies OR audits of certain DOD programs OR providing local HS and college students opportunities to work alongside NIH scientists for credit during the school year or summer terms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest question: I've heard that in the event of a government shutdown leading to federal workers being placed on furlough, they are eventually compensated for their lost wages once the shutdown concludes. What's the rationale behind this policy? It seems that during the furlough, no productive work is being performed, and the majority, if not all, private contractors do not receive any retroactive compensation. Moreover, the shutdown itself is usually a result of insufficient funding or disagreements regarding future funding.

Just trying to understand, thanks!

Shutdowns are not about insufficient funding. They're usually about disagreements over allocation or funding. That doesn't have anything to do with federal workers, one way or the other.

Does it make sense to pay backpay for shutdowns? Not really. But shutdowns themselves don't make sense.

After the last one, Congress made it a law to provide backpay. A law to provide for indefinite CRs would have made more sense but we'll take what we can get.

[Anonymous]

Somebody is posting a lot of "just asking" questions recently ....

In the private sector, if your salaried staff show up but you have to close because you didn't pay the power bill, you still owe them salary. (In some states you owe hourly workers for the day, too.) This is not controversial.

The government does not pay contractors directly, so it cannot give them backpay directly. Many are paid throughout, either because of how contracts are paid fir or because their employers aren't foolish enough to lay them off for a temporarydisruption.

[Anonymous]

There are two kinds of federal employees in this situation:

1. The kind who are legally forbidden to work. They cannot be paid during the shutdown. Maybe they can get their kids out of daycare, but they still have to pay for food and shelter. How can they generate income? They might have to quit and look for other work, right?

2. The kind who has and exception to keep working. They too cannot be paid during the shutdown, but they still have to use daycare, use transportation, etc, because they're working. How can they generate income? They might have to quit and look for paid work, right?

Do you understand now? Regardless of being legally obligated to provide backpay, if a shutdown goes on for too long, some families will not have enough money to pay for daily expenses. Which is why the brinkmanship of recent years is not ethical at all. It puts financial stress on thousands of lower and middle class families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honest question: I've heard that in the event of a government shutdown leading to federal workers being placed on furlough, they are eventually compensated for their lost wages once the shutdown concludes. What's the rationale behind this policy? It seems that during the furlough, no productive work is being performed, and the majority, if not all, private contractors do not receive any retroactive compensation. Moreover, the shutdown itself is usually a result of insufficient funding or disagreements regarding future funding.

Just trying to understand, thanks!

Next questions, why do feds get federal pensions and contractors don’t? And why pay retirees pensions when “no productive work is being performed” by the pension recipients?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honest question: I've heard that in the event of a government shutdown leading to federal workers being placed on furlough, they are eventually compensated for their lost wages once the shutdown concludes. What's the rationale behind this policy? It seems that during the furlough, no productive work is being performed, and the majority, if not all, private contractors do not receive any retroactive compensation. Moreover, the shutdown itself is usually a result of insufficient funding or disagreements regarding future funding.

Just trying to understand, thanks!

Next questions, why do feds get federal pensions and contractors don’t? And why pay retirees pensions when “no productive work is being performed” by the pension recipients?

Is this a serious question?

Federal employees get a pension as part of their overall employment benefits. (note that the pension today is relatively small; federal employees can contribute to the equivalent of a 401(k).)
Contractors are contractors and get their benefits through the contracted company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Does it make sense to pay backpay for shutdowns? Not really. But shutdowns themselves don't make sense.

It's basically a lockout - an employer telling its employees that they can't work, can't take another job, and have to return as soon as they declare. Yet it's not sensible to pay? Yeah, I get it - the employees in many cases aren't going actual work for the government (legally they can't) but the employer is specifically telling them not to work even though they continue to be employed.

Just so it's clear - it's not like a vacation. You can't plan anything around it. You don't know until midnight on Sept. 30 that it's starting, and it could last an hour, a day, a week, a month. And you're not getting paid. Who could just go off and have fun during that period.

It's horribly inefficient to be sure - I'd rather work for my pay than not - but it is entirely because Congress and the President can't get their acts together (obviously the blame falls more specifically in each shutdown). If nothing else, federal employees should get paid as recompense for the big FU C and P give them every so often.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Federal workers shouldn’t be punished by politicians ineptitude.

This^.

[Anonymous]

Its not their choice. They aren't on vacation. After all the financial sacrifices talented people make to work in government, not getting paid for forced leave and then handling twice as much work in half the time, we'll lose a lot of them.