A federal employee earning $90,000 has about $346 in gross pay riding on every workday of a government shutdown. A six-week lapse, about 30 workdays, puts $10,385 in limbo until Congress and the agency payroll offices sort out back pay. The House has now cleared a stopgap funding bill that the Senate had already passed by a wide margin, and it goes to President Trump's desk. Once he signs, agencies are funded and that math stays hypothetical, at least until the bill's expiration date comes around.
Stopgaps buy time, not a budget. Here's how they work and what's at stake when one fails.
By the Numbers
- $346: gross pay per workday for a $90,000 employee (annual salary divided by 260 paid workdays)
- $3,462: one biweekly pay period at that salary, the size of a single missed paycheck
- $10,385: roughly six weeks (30 workdays) of that salary, held up during a long lapse
- $1,750: a half-month military paycheck for an illustrative service member with $3,500 a month in basic pay
- 12: the number of regular appropriations bills Congress is supposed to pass each year
- October 1: the start of the federal fiscal year, when the money runs out absent new law
- 60 votes: the Senate threshold to cut off debate on most funding bills
- 35 days: the length of the 2018–19 shutdown, which CBO later estimated cost the economy $11 billion, about $3 billion of it permanently
- 43 days: the fall 2025 shutdown, the longest on record
How it works
Congress funds the government through appropriations bills, written by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. There are twelve, one per subcommittee area, covering everything from Defense to Agriculture to Veterans Affairs. The fiscal year starts October 1. Most years the bills aren't done by then, so Congress passes a continuing resolution, or CR.
A CR keeps agencies running at the prior year's funding rates for a set period. It doesn't set new policy. It typically bars new programs from starting and generally holds spending flat, though bills usually carry a handful of "anomalies" that adjust specific accounts. The expiration date is in the text, and that date is the next cliff. Read it. It tells you when this whole conversation starts over.
A lapse matters because of the Antideficiency Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1341, which bars agencies from spending or obligating money that hasn't been appropriated. A companion provision, § 1342, prohibits accepting voluntary services, which is why employees can't just keep working for free. The exception covers emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property. That's the legal basis for "excepted" employees, the people who must keep working during a lapse: air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement, most active-duty military.
Everyone else gets furloughed, meaning placed on non-duty, non-pay status. Mandatory programs like Social Security benefit payments and Medicare keep going because permanent law funds them, not annual appropriations. The Postal Service funds itself through postage. Agencies with multi-year money or fee revenue can sometimes stay open for a while.
Procedurally, a funding bill needs a majority in the House and, because of the filibuster, 60 votes in the Senate. Once both chambers pass identical text, the president has ten days, Sundays excepted, to sign or veto. A veto sends it back to Congress.
What the law guarantees on back pay
The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 (Pub. L. 116-1) requires that furloughed and excepted employees be paid retroactively for the lapse, "as soon as practicable" after funding is restored. Before that, back pay for furloughed workers rested on past practice and one-off legislation. Now it's statutory.
Two gaps remain. "As soon as practicable" isn't a date, so the check arrives after the missed one, not instead of it. And federal contractors aren't covered. Contract employees generally have no guaranteed back pay, and many never recover the lost wages.
Military pay is a different animal. Active-duty service members are excepted and work during a lapse, but their pay depends on available funds. Congress passed a specific "Pay Our Military" law in 2013 to keep paychecks flowing. In other lapses, Coast Guard members, who sit under DHS rather than Defense, missed a paycheck in January 2019. Whether troops get paid in a future lapse has depended on what Congress or the administration did at the time, not on an automatic rule.
A worked example
Take Dana, a GS-12 program analyst at an agency with a $90,000 salary. Assume the CR didn't pass and her agency shut down.
- Daily rate. $90,000 ÷ 260 workdays = $346.15 gross per day.
- One pay period. Ten workdays × $346.15 = $3,461.54 gross. That's the biweekly check she wouldn't receive on time.
- A long lapse. Thirty workdays, about six weeks, × $346.15 = $10,384.62 gross. That's three pay periods' worth of income, delayed.
- If she's furloughed. She stays home, gets no paycheck, and expects back pay under the 2019 law once funding is restored.
- If she's excepted. She works and still gets no paycheck on schedule. Her back pay arrives later too.
Under the 2019 law, Dana ends up whole on paper. She isn't whole on the day the mortgage, rent, or childcare is due. The gross figures also overstate what lands in her account, because taxes and benefit deductions come out of the eventual back pay the same way they come out of any check. The delay is the cost. For an employee living paycheck to paycheck, it can mean late fees or a draw on credit.
For a service member with $3,500 a month in basic pay, a missed 15th-of-the-month payday means a $1,750 gap, since pay comes on the 1st and the 15th.
Who is affected, and by how much
Civilian employees, furloughed. They stop work and pay. Exposure per workday is salary ÷ 260. A GS-5 at $40,000 loses about $154 a day. A GS-14 at $140,000 loses about $538. The law restores it, but late.
Civilian employees, excepted. They work and get paid on the back end. Same dollars, no time off.
Military. Pay is the main risk, not furlough. Junior enlisted members have the thinnest cushions, so a missed half-month check does the most damage there.
Contractors. No statutory back-pay guarantee. A contractor on a lapsed contract may lose wages permanently.
Retirees and annuitants. Annuity payments generally continue, since they come from the retirement trust fund. What suffers is OPM's service capacity. New retirement claims can slow down, and backlogs take months to clear.
Veterans and families. Many VA benefits and medical services are funded in advance, so they keep running. Other programs and some administrative functions aren't. It varies by account, which is why advance appropriations are a recurring fight.
How to estimate your own
Take your annual base salary and divide by 260. That's your gross daily pay at stake. Multiply by the length of a hypothetical lapse: 10 workdays for two weeks, 30 for six.
If you're also sizing up what your accrued time off is worth in dollars, the annual leave payout calculator turns your hourly rate and leave balance into a number. It's a handy companion figure. Your leave balance is cash value you hold regardless of a shutdown, and it shows how much cushion you carry.
For service members, cut your monthly basic pay in half to see what a missed mid-month check looks like. Add BAH and BAS if you want the full picture, since those can be delayed too.
FAQ
Does this bill mean there's no shutdown risk at all? Only until the CR's expiration date. A stopgap pushes the deadline, not the problem. Check the end date in the bill text, then watch whether Congress passes full-year appropriations or another CR before it arrives.
Is the bill law yet? No. After both chambers pass the same text, the president has ten days, Sundays excepted, to sign it. Funding is secure once he does.
If a shutdown happens, will I definitely get back pay? Furloughed and excepted federal employees are entitled to it under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019. The timing is "as soon as practicable," not a fixed date. Contractors have no such guarantee.
What's the difference between a CR and a regular appropriations bill? A CR holds funding at last year's rates and mostly freezes new initiatives. A regular bill sets funding levels for the year and can change priorities. CRs are easier to pass because they sidestep fights over specifics.
Do I keep my health insurance in a lapse? Coverage under FEHB generally continues, but how premiums get handled depends on your pay status. If a lapse looks likely, check with your agency HR office and your carrier.
Bottom line
The House vote removes the near-term threat, and for a $90,000 employee that's roughly $346 a day that stays in the paycheck. The underlying cycle hasn't changed. A CR is a deadline with a date on it, and Congress has to pass full-year bills or another extension before that date. Know the expiration, know your daily number, and keep enough cushion to cover a missed paycheck. The back-pay law makes you whole eventually, not on time.