A common question asked by federal employees during a shutdown: Will I be paid? In response to this question, the Dec. 23 news article “Delving into the probable effects of the impasse” stated that “employees deemed essential . . . who must work during the shutdown, will get paid for that time after the shutdown.” Unfortunately, that answer is true, but it also is wrong.
After the 2013 shutdown, 25,000 essential federal employees, represented by my law firm, sued the government, arguing that the Fair Labor Standards Act requires that all employees, including federal employees, be paid on time for their services. In 2014, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims agreed and, in 2017, the court held further that the employees were entitled to twice their back pay because of the violation. However, even while we are still calculating the damages to those 25,000 employees, the Office of Personnel Management has not required that essential federal employees be paid on time during the current shutdown. The failure to update this requirement will unnecessarily cost taxpayers additional millions of dollars and imposes additional harm to federal employees who don’t know when they will get their next paycheck.