Roughly 800,000 federal workers missed their first paycheck last Friday.
President Donald Trump just signed a bill that guarantees back pay for the hundreds of thousands of government employees who have been furloughed during the partial government shutdown.
It’s certainly a positive update for workers, many of whom missed their first paycheck last week, but it comes as the president continues to demand more than $5 billion to fund his border wall, a fight that is keeping the government closed and forcing them to go without pay in the interim.
The newly signed law aims to swiftly reimburse workers once the government is open: It not only guarantees that workers will receive their back pay, but it also specifies that they will get it as quickly as possible after the president signs appropriations bills that end the shutdown, even if that means some paychecks will be sent out off cycle.
