WASHINGTON — With a full government shutdown impending, lots of federal workers are thinking about how they will get by without a paycheck, not knowing how long their furlough might last.
Many are considering filing for unemployment benefits to keep themselves afloat. A viewer named Tim asked two questions related to that process.
QUESTION
If the government shuts down, will all the government employees who are furloughed get their pay when the government opens back up?
SOURCES
U.S. Department of State Furloughed Employees Handbook
ANSWER
A tradition of paying back furloughed federal workers is now law.
WHAT WE FOUND
Giving back pay to federal employees has been a tradition for several decades. According to the Congressional Research Service, memos outlined that employees should be paid retroactively after shutdowns in 1981 and 2013.
The custom became law in 2019 when Congress passed the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), said, "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."
For federal contractors, however, there are no guarantees about getting back pay.
On his website, Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Georgia) says every contract is different, and many workers will not receive back pay.
And Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-Washington D.C.) wrote a letter to President Biden in May asking if there was anything the administration could do to make sure contract workers get retroactive pay, as well.
QUESTION
Will federal employees have to pay back any unemployment benefits received while the government was shut down?
SOURCES
U.S. Department of State Furloughed Employees Handbook
ANSWER
Federal employees may collect unemployment benefits during a government shutdown, but they should prepare to give the money back.
WHAT WE FOUND
While federal workers receive retroactive pay for the time missed (or for required unpaid hours for workers deemed to be essential), many will rely on unemployment benefits to make ends meet until paychecks resume.
But multiple government agencies warn that the money provided by unemployment insurance will not be theirs to keep.
In an employee handbook about furloughs, the State Department says federal workers who get unemployment benefits do have to repay the money received when they get their back pay.
A memo from the Office of Personnel Management adds, "should an appropriation or continuing resolution occur that retroactively provides for the payment of salary, state and Federal UI laws governing benefit overpayments will need to be applied to those weeks in which benefits were paid."