Retroactive Payment
The House of Representatives has passed a bill to provide retroactive pay to U.S. workers caught in the impasse, once it is resolved. The measure, which is pending in the Senate, has assured some workers that the pain will be temporary. That’s not much comfort to some.
Harris, 46, who helps run employee background checks at the census bureau, said her next paycheck will be about half the $1,031 she typically receives. The checks cover a week of work and a day before the shutdown began.
She has to decide how to pay her car loan and credit card bills, which are due next week. She has already canceled a planned check up with the doctor who treated her for cancer last year, to save the $120 it would cost her.
“They say they are going to pay you back -- but the damage is already done,” she said.
Almost two weeks into the shutdown, half of the 670,000 members of American Federation of Government Employees have been put on unpaid leave, while the other half are working without pay, J. David Cox, national president of the Washington-based union, said in a statement.
Cutting Everything
Stephen Ferrara, a Federal Aviation Administration inspector, said he’s stopped going out to dinner and cut spending on everything except necessities. He oversees two flight schools, air-taxi operators and private aviation from the Farmingdale, New York, Flight Standards Office.
“I’ve paid bills for 35 years and I’ve never had to deal with this,” Ferrara said. “It’s disconcerting.”
While some spending will resume when workers get paid, much like it does after a blizzard, small businesses such as restaurants won’t easily recover, Fuller said.