Who gets paid if we have shutdown

[RetireBy90]

I'm sure this has been covered here before but I didn't see it in a search.

If there is a government shutdown, who still gets paid ?

SS
Military Retirement
Govt retirement
and any other payments from federal govt


Thanks

[wrigley]

Everyone receiving a government check will get paid. Although, a certain group on capital hill will insist that is not true!

Mike

[braumeister]

I take a certain amount of comfort in the fact that although the lawmakers will still get paid, their staffs (tens of thousands of them) will not. That's a significant amount of pressure on them to fix it.

[RetireBy90]

Thanks for the quick response.

So I know when we had debt ceiling issue we still got paid, but isn't the appropriation cycle a bit different ?

[donheff]

Paychecks stop for employees who are paid from appropriated funds that don’t get funded, even the essential workers who are required to work while not being paid. Congress has always paid all of the effected employees when they eventually work out a deal. But as we like to say around here, the past doesn’t necessarily repeat. In addition, a lot of government work is done by private contractors and they don’t get paid for work not done. The big firms often absorb the loss and pay their workers, but not all can or do.

[Spock]

This vid describes who/what gets paid vs what doesn't.
https://youtu.be/QdaYr8dP5UU?si=enEvYtGmKQqtGCt9

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donheff ...a lot of government work is done by private contractors and they don’t get paid for work not done. The big firms often absorb the loss and pay their workers, but not all can or do.

Not necessarily, it depends on the structure of the contract. For us (DHHS outreach/communications contract), those funds are already obligated, and not dependent on the budget still being negotiated, so we still get paid as long as we can do work, although that part depends on how much we depend on our Federal clients for feedback, approval, assignments, etc. I've always had a list of things that SHOULD be done but were almost permanently shelved because of other, more important tasks; those have been the things I've worked on when we've had significant shutdowns in the past.

Now, as for how my company gets the money to pay me, I have no idea. I am pretty sure they bill the government periodically based on our hourly billings, but I would think that would have to be put on hold during a shutdown, so really small companies might not be able to sustain that for more than a month or two. But that's out of my wheelhouse.

[RetireBy90]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Cosmic Avenger Not necessarily, it depends on the structure of the contract. For us (DHHS outreach/communications contract), those funds are already obligated, and not dependent on the budget still being negotiated, so we still get paid as long as we can do work, although that part depends on how much we depend on our Federal clients for feedback, approval, assignments, etc. I've always had a list of things that SHOULD be done but were almost permanently shelved because of other, more important tasks; those have been the things I've worked on when we've had significant shutdowns in the past. Now, as for how my company gets the money to pay me, I have no idea. I am pretty sure they bill the government periodically based on our hourly billings, but I would think that would have to be put on hold during a shutdown, so really small companies might not be able to sustain that for more than a month or two. But that's out of my wheelhouse.

I was a govt contractor many years ago and if I remember correctly money that was obligated for our contract could be spent but not authorized but not obligated. We entered a 2 week shutdown where my team kept the lights on. I had a team of 6, I was allowed to keep 5 working and we found other work for the 6th so we all got paid as normal while govt workers didn't get paid until after the shutdown was over. Most of the time if not all that we had shutdowns in my 20 years active duty and 6 as contractor govt workers received any pay they missed while idled.

[marko]

Everyone gets paid. It's just a matter of when.

[braumeister]

Strangely enough, although the other military branches get paid, the Coast Guard doesn't. Some years ago (I think it was 2019), they went unpaid for nearly a month during a shutdown. Bills are introduced from time to time to correct this, but not passed yet.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by marko Everyone gets paid. It's just a matter of when.

+1 That's the way it was in my (federal) agency IIRC.

[cathy63]

Quote:

... Now, as for how my company gets the money to pay me, I have no idea. I am pretty sure they bill the government periodically based on our hourly billings, but I would think that would have to be put on hold during a shutdown, so really small companies might not be able to sustain that for more than a month or two. But that's out of my wheelhouse.

Part of the contract I was working on during the 2013 shutdown was for a system that handled contractor invoices for GSA IT projects. I'm sure your employer uses a different system to submit its invoices, but if it's like ours, everything goes into a pending status and just piles up until the Fed employees that approve invoices come back to work. Then it's a frantic few weeks to get everything paid as fast as possible because the gov has to pay interest on anything over 30 days.

My employer was a small biz, and they furloughed all but a few employees immediately. The restart took about 4 or 5 days, so the whole thing ended up being about 3 weeks with no pay, though you could use PTO if you had it. I lost a few good employees over that.

[Fermion]

if the IRS is shut down, do we still have to pay taxes?

[Affinity4Investing]

The gov never shuts down. That is the first big lie that is told and believed. The IRS continues to rake in money from taxpayers, those on the dole continue to receive benefits, the military soldiers on doing their thing, etc. Only a select few get told to stay home and enjoy the benefits of an additional paid vacation that the rest of us never get.

[HawkeyeNFO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Strangely enough, although the other military branches get paid, the Coast Guard doesn't. Some years ago (I think it was 2019), they went unpaid for nearly a month during a shutdown. Bills are introduced from time to time to correct this, but not passed yet.

USCG is administratively not part of the DoD. They are DHS.

[HawkeyeNFO]

Where I work (in the Pentagon) we generally have 3 types of employees: Government civilian, uniformed military, and contractors. Each is funded a bit differently. A shutdown means that the gov't civilians stay home until it's over, and don't get their back pay until the shutdown is over. The military members still come in to the office for work, and usually (though not guaranteed) get paid. Contractors are usually funded ahead of time via several drops of money throughout the year, so they will come in to the office until that funding is used up. After that, they stay home.

[EastWest Gal]

It would be nice if Congress didn’t get paid during the shutdowns. And also not get to collect back pay when the shutdown ends. It might get them to actually solve problems instead of whining into to news media microphones. Maybe turn off the heat/AC to their offices too. Electricity should stay on though.

[Car-Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fermion if the IRS is shut down, do we still have to pay taxes?

Quote:

Originally Posted by EastWest Gal It would be nice if Congress didn’t get paid during the shutdowns. And also not get to collect back pay when the shutdown ends. It might get them to actually solve problems instead of whining into to news media microphones.

+1

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EastWest Gal It would be nice if Congress didn’t get paid during the shutdowns. And also not get to collect back pay when the shutdown ends. It might get them to actually solve problems instead of whining into to news media microphones. Maybe turn off the heat/AC to their offices too. Electricity should stay on though.

It has always been my impression that members of Congress are either: 1) already independently wealthy or 2) have many more sources of income related to obtaining and keeping their position than their official salary.

[HarveyS]

Since 1980 there have been 10 instances where gov't was shut down and employees furloughed. The length of the furloughs ranged from 4 hours to 35 days. In none of those cases did the world come to an end. I don't think it will this time either (should agreement not be reached).

PS - I think it's utter nonsense that our elected officials repeatedly cannot get this done on time.