Furloughed workers unpaid due to the government shutdown are being given free meals, beer, knitting classes, and movie passes.
The partial shutdown of the US government has come with plenty of terrible consequences. Federal workers are losing out on paychecks, airports are experiencing the effects of TSA agents working without pay, national parks are getting trashed, and the country is somehow even more politically polarized than it was before.
Some companies are stepping up during the national crisis, though, and offering free meals, groceries, entertainment, and cash to furloughed workers.
About 800,000 workers are suffering because of the government shutdown. The last paycheck federal employees received was on December 28, and although some senators are getting paid, many low-wage employees are not. While the average federal worker earns $85,000 a year, according to the Washington Post, about 110,000 government workers make less than $50,000 a year.
With the shutdown now entering its fourth week, plenty of workers are feeling the hit of the financial burdens that come when paychecks disappear. Thousands of workers have started flooding food banks across the country. One Facebook group, Government Shutdown Swap, as first reported by CNN, has more than 200 federal workers selling belongings like purses, motorcycles, and jewelry to pay for rent and food. Federal workers have also set up more than 1,800 GoFundMe pages.
“Since I have been furloughed, I have been volunteering at the Capital Area Food Bank as well as the DC Central Kitchen,” one Agriculture Department worker who says he needs money for rent and student loans wrote on his GoFundMe page. “I hate to appear as though I am begging, however this is [an] emergency.”
In order to help, many companies are extending offers big and small to help furloughed workers while the government leaves them hanging. Some major corporations, for example, are offering extended time for federal workers to pay their bills. Cellphone companies like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, for example, have all said they will waive late fees for workers impacted by the shutdown, and will work with them on payment plans. Banks like Chase, Citi, American Express, and Capital One are giving similar offers too.
