As the government shutdown enters its seventh day, for the nearly 750,000 federal workers impacted by the shutdown – including Imelda Avila-Thomas and her husband – that peace of mind has been shattered. The married couple each does work for the federal government. Since the lapse in funding started on October 1, their income as a household has dropped from two full promised incomes to zero. Avila-Thomas, foreground, serves as the president of her local American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) 2139 union. In those roles, she brought an equity lens to the Department of Transportation’s workforce issues.
The approaching economic reality is clear, as furloughed employees will be getting their last paycheck this Friday. This will be the paycheck for their final two weeks of work. It fails to provide any back pay for days worked during the shutdown. It gets even worse because some of those essential federal employees are required to continue working without compensation. Until the federal government reopens, they’ll stay in limbo.
She fears that she will soon be unable to afford to keep her family together. Already, in order to save money, she’s given up on tutoring her dyslexic 12-year-old daughter. On top of that, she’s looking to host a garage sale to liquidate some of her stash of personal belongings to help raise funds.
“Any day that goes by, it adds up,” said Avila-Thomas.
Yolanda Jacobs is president of AFGE Local 2883, and a communications specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She tweeted about what the shutdown means for implementation. She added that it will be “extremely challenging,” particularly without a definite end date.
The worry and stress caused by the shutdown extends beyond those who are directly impacted to the community as a whole. Lisa Baranik, a furloughed federal employee, expressed her anxiety over piling bills and other costs.
President Donald Trump has worsened that uncertainty, as he has suggested that some workers affected by the shutdown might not get backpay. This decision departs from the standard rule, where furloughed government workers usually receive back pay in full when the government reopens.
“As the situation continues to unfold, it gets more and more stressful — more bills pile up, more groceries need to be paid for,” Baranik stated.
As labor expert and retired ILR professor Art Wheaton put it, this was the predicament for many feds caught in the storm of uncertainty.
“It depends who we’re talking about,” Trump remarked in response to questions about backpay for federal workers.
The ripple effects of the shutdown are rippling through households around the nation. Federal workers such as Avila-Thomas and Jacobs are trying to find their path through this rocky, confusing time. Yet as they, like so many others, face mounting invoices and burdensome decisions, it is clear that their futures hang in the balance. Families across the judiciary are anxiously awaiting any sign of financial pandemic relief. The need for a political solution grows as they wait wishing for the possibility of their jobs resuming.
“For the most part, workers are stuck with individual responsibility for their budget,” Wheaton noted.
The impact of the shutdown is reverberating throughout households across the nation, as federal workers like Avila-Thomas and Jacobs navigate this challenging period. As they contend with unpaid bills and difficult choices, it is evident that their livelihoods are at stake. The urgency for political resolution grows as families await clarity about their financial futures and the potential resumption of their jobs.
