In agencies whose appropriations lapse, employees whose work is deemed “excepted” from furlough and who are ordered to continue working are guaranteed by law to be paid later for that time since the government has incurred an obligation to them. That would apply to an estimated 60 percent of the roughly 800,000 employees in agencies that lack full-year funding—the largest of them in terms of employees is DHS, with a high percentage of law enforcement and security-related positions that would be excepted.
For “non-excepted” employees, who are furloughed, there is no such assurance. In past shutdowns they have been paid later as well, but that requires action by Congress each time. The timing of payments depends on the shutdown’s length and how it fits into payroll cycles. The pay traditionally has included payment for regularly scheduled overtime, premium pay and other differentials that otherwise would have been paid.
FEHB coverage continues for all employees, with the employee share to be paid retroactively later if an employee’s pay for a pay period would not be large enough to cover it. Premiums under FEDVIP and FLTCIP insurance similarly would accumulate but if a shutdown went on for a number of weeks, those programs would directly bill enrollees. FEGLI insurance continues without cost to the employee.
There would be no impact on an employee’s eventual retirement benefit unless an employee was on unpaid leave for more than six months in a calendar year.
Another consideration for many would involve leave, especially since the shutdown is pending just ahead of the holiday week when many employees have scheduled time off. The policy has been that those who had scheduled to take paid leave for days that later became shutdown furlough days do not have their leave balances reduced for those days. However, employees who had been scheduled to be on leave without pay (such as parental or medical leave) will still be in unpaid status for those days.
Furlough time that was later paid also counts for purposes of annual and sick leave accrual and within-grade waiting periods.
More on Rules on Furloughs in the Federal Government at ask.FEDweek.com