How soon could federal workers be paid after the government shutdown ends?
After lawmakers reached a deal to end the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history, hundreds of thousands of government workers who haven't been paid are wondering when their paychecks could finally arrive.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a Senate-passed funding package, which President Trump signed into law, ending the 43-day-long shutdown.
Now that the funding bill has passed and the government is open again, federal workers are entitled to back pay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019. The law covers both furloughed employees and those required to work without pay, requiring agencies to issue retroactive payments as soon as possible rather than waiting for scheduled pay dates.
When will federal workers get paid?
Some federal employees will receive back pay as soon as Sunday, according to a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), whose contents were first reported by Semafor. Other workers will have to wait until Wednesday, Nov. 19 to receive paychecks. The White House confirmed the memo's contents to CBS News.
OMB, which laid out an agency-by-agency pay schedule for workers, is aiming to make all federal workers whole by Nov. 19, and instructed agencies to make payments to workers "expeditiously and accurately," according to the memo.
Workers' first post-shutdown paychecks will cover the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1, while pay for days worked after Nov. 1 will come later.
Air traffic controllers, who as essential workers were required to report to their jobs without pay during the shutdown, will receive their paychecks on November 17, according to the White House.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also said on Thursday that some TSA agents who delivered "exemplary service" during the shutdown will receive a one-time, $10,000 bonus.
"We're going to look at every individual that did exceptional service during this period of time when there were so many hardships," she said at a press conference in Houston on Thursday.
The shutdown took a deep financial toll on federal workers, with some turning to bank loans to cover bills. About 1.4 million employees missed their first full paychecks on Oct. 24 after receiving only partial pay on Oct. 10.
The Navy Federal Credit Union, which serves military personnel, said it has seen a surge in interest for its no-interest loans since the shutdown began.
"More than 350,000 members enrolled for assistance — 18 times the enrollment in the 2018-19 shutdown," said Heather Long, the credit union's chief economist, in an email. "It's one of many signs of how painful and uncertain this shutdown has been for many hard-working families."
Under the 2019 law, workers who miss paychecks during a lapse in federal funding must be paid retroactively as soon as the shutdown ends. It directs agencies to issue back pay "at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates."
That's what happened after the 2018–19 shutdown, said Rachel Snyderman, managing director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
"In prior shutdowns, back pay has been paid at the earliest date possible after appropriations have been passed, regardless of scheduled pay dates," she told CBS News. "At this time, we have every indication that this would move forward."
At least 670,000 federal employees were furloughed, while roughly 730,000 worked without pay throughout the shutdown, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. If the shutdown had lasted through December 1, the group estimates about 4.5 million paychecks — totaling $21 billion — would have been delayed.