4.1 Overview
When a shutdown begins, the question of who receives pay and who must keep working without pay becomes both a legal and humanitarian issue. The controlling law is the Antideficiency Act (ADA) together with later amendments such as the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which now guarantees back-pay for most civil servants once funding resumes (GAO 2023). Nevertheless, distinctions between excepted, non-excepted, and contracted labour determine real-time hardship.
4.2 Categories of Federal Employment
| Category | Typical roles | Status during shutdown | Pay arrangements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excepted employees | Essential to protection of life or property (e.g., air traffic controllers, prison officers, border security, active-duty military) | Required to work | No pay until funding restored; then back-paid by law |
| Non-excepted employees (furloughed) | Administrative, research, training, and support staff | Sent home and barred from work email or official duties | Back-pay after lapse ends (mandated since 2019) |
| Political appointees and Congress | President, Vice President, Members of Congress | Continue duties | Paid on schedule (constitutional protection of pay) |
| Federal contractors | IT, custodial, consulting, maintenance | Work suspended if funded agency closed | No guaranteed back-pay – losses borne by employer/worker |
(Sources: CRS 2025; GAO 2023; OPM Shutdown Guidance 2024)
4.3 The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act 2019
After the 2018–19 shutdown left 800 000 federal employees without pay for 35 days, Congress enacted the Fair Treatment Act (5 U.S.C. § 5551 note). It requires that:
- All federal employees subject to a lapse receive retroactive pay “at the earliest date possible” after enactment of appropriations.
- Furloughed workers accrue leave benefits as if continuously employed.
- Contract staff are excluded, leaving many private-sector workers uncompensated (CRS 2025).
4.4 Military and law-enforcement pay
- Department of Defence (DoD): Active-duty personnel are “excepted”; operations continue. However, if no specific appropriation exists for military pay, troops work without immediate salaries until Congress passes either a CR or a separate “Pay Our Military Act”. DoD civilian support staff face furloughs unless designated essential (DoD Contingency Plan 2024).
- Federal law enforcement and emergency services: FBI, DEA, and TSA continue core security and safety functions but without timely pay; morale issues commonly reported (Reuters 2025).
4.5 Social Security and health entitlements
Programmes such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are funded by permanent or multi-year appropriations (“mandatory spending”). Benefits thus continue even during a shutdown, although:
- Customer service offices and claims processing slow due to staff reductions.
- New applications or appeals can face delays (CRS 2025).
4.6 Federal contractors and private losses
Shutdowns disproportionately affect contract workers—cleaners, security guards, IT consultants, construction labour—whose contracts cease when agencies close. They are not entitled to back-pay under federal law. The CBO (2019) estimated that roughly $3 billion in lost output from the 2018–19 shutdown was permanent, largely due to uncompensated private sector losses.
4.7 Constitutional pay protections
Under Article II, section 1 (Executive Branch) and Article I, section 6 (Legislative Branch) of the U.S. Constitution, the President, Vice President, and Members of Congress cannot have their salaries diminished during their terms. Consequently, they continue to receive pay throughout shutdowns—a point of public criticism during every major lapse (CRS 2025).
4.8 Summary table – Financial status during shutdown
| Group | Work status | Paid during shutdown | Guaranteed back-pay | Funding source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excepted federal staff | Work required | ❌ | ✅ (by law) | Annual appropriations (post-funded) |
| Furloughed staff | Stay home | ❌ | ✅ | Annual appropriations (post-funded) |
| Active-duty military | Work required | Usually ❌ until separate bill passes | ✅ | Defence appropriation or special act |
| Contract workers | Work suspended | ❌ | ❌ | Private contracts halted |
| Social Security recipients | N/A | ✅ | N/A | Permanent trust funds |
| President/Congress | Work continues | ✅ | N/A | Constitutionally protected |
4.9 Interpretive points
- The 2019 statute reduces the humanitarian damage to federal employees but does not remove the economic shock of delayed consumption and contractor losses.
- The continuation of Social Security and military readiness illustrates that shutdowns are partial, not total, closures.
- The unequal treatment of public versus contract workers is a persistent equity issue in shutdown policy discourse (CRS 2025).
References
- Congressional Research Service (2025) Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects. Washington, DC: Library of Congress.
- Government Accountability Office (2023) Antideficiency Act: A Primer on the Legal Framework. Washington, DC: GAO.
- Office of Personnel Management (2024) Guidance for Shutdown Furloughs and Pay Status. Washington, DC: OPM.
- Department of Defence (2024) Guidance for Continuing Operations During a Funding Lapse. Washington, DC: DoD.
- Congressional Budget Office (2019) The Effects of the Partial Shutdown Ending in January 2019. Washington, DC: CBO.
- Reuters (2025) ‘Federal Workers Face Delayed Pay as Shutdown Drags On,’ 5 November.