I & I Editorial BoardThe largest federal employee union wants to end the government shutdown with “no half measures, and no gamesmanship,” and is demanding that everyone get full back pay. Those who have worked without being paid should be compensated. But those who didn’t should get nothing.
“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today,” the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 820,000 federal workers, tweeted Monday, and “put every single federal worker back on the job with full back pay — today.”
Why should government employees be paid for work they didn’t do? No one should have a problem with active-duty military personnel, air traffic controllers, law enforcement officers and other essential workers who are doing their jobs with no incomes during the shutdown getting back pay. They put in the labor, they deserve their money.
But those who have not been working should not be free to enjoy a one-month paid vacation away from their nonessential work. When private-sector workers are sent home for any reason – due to downsizing or fired for cause – they lose their wages. No one marches on their behalf, the media don’t whine and fret over their misfortune, and lawmakers say nothing unless it’s a Democrat who is taking the opportunity to bash those “evil” corporations who dare to try to earn a profit.
Yet government workers have come to be regarded as a higher class of employee who deserve treatment they wouldn’t expect in the private sector. We submit that at the federal level this is largely because most bureaucrats are Democrats and they control an administrative state that gives Democrats a hegemonic rule even when they don’t have a majority in Congress nor a president in the White House.
What’a more, they are richly rewarded for their partisanship. Government workers are better compensated than private-sector employees.
“The average federal worker still makes far more than the average private-sector worker in total compensation,” says Chris Edward of the Cato Institute, though “the advantage has narrowed” in recent years.
In 2021, the average annual federal-employee total compensation package was $143,643. Those in the private sector averaged $88,152.
While the gap has closed, it’s been there for more than a generation. Two decades earlier, federal workers were raking in $69,419 a year in total compensation, private-sector employees $46,136.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the story is the same at the state and local levels.
“Total employer compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $63.94 per hour worked in June 2025,” says the BLS.
Meanwhile, “Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $45.65 per hour worked in June 2025.”
The union’s demand for back pay is pretty cheeky, given that most of the federal workers on furlough should not only be denied back pay, their “vacations” need to be made permanent.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 states otherwise.
Right on. No pay for no work. If they do not like it, they can seek employment elsewhere. Over 100k wages a year and they do not have savings or a credit card that is not maxed out so they can get by for a few weeks? Knowing they historically get the back pay to catch up when the shutdown is over. If they are that poor at handling their own money, they are not worth much as an employee anyway.
I think another issue that needs to be addressed is: Why are there non-essential workers being compensated at taxpayer expense? I would hope that this issue is resolved as part of this shutdown.
No back pay, period. For anybody. Military needs to dig into their reserve funds or whatever. DOGE needs to go find another 800 billion.
Just think what would happen if Congress, the Senate and all their staff would be the first to lose their pay, and with no back pay for the time the government was shut down.
I wonder what party the majority of the union members voted for? Rule#1: if you have ever worked in Any level of Government, Any-Where, from ‘dog catcher’ on up you can Never ever VOTE again or your family. Government workers will not vote for Smaller government, so, no vote at All. Government can’t create wealth, at it’s best it Steals it.
Three reasons not paying these folks is wrong. 1. This mess is not the employee or respective government agency’s fault. It is congress’s inability to do its job per the constitution to fund the government and pass funding bills. (Both parties are guilty of playing this game over the years) 2. Many of the folks who are home are essential, but the guidance that led to them being deemed non essential is dated, not operationally based, and does not account for single points of failure in any organization. There is also pressure by higher leadership to deem more folks non essential than the leaders at lower levels believe. (Reminder that it is the lower blue collar trench level that does the work. Not the higher levels.) 3. if congress is being paid and not doing its job. It is inappropriate to penalize workers who want to do their job for congressional failures. In the end, be careful what you wish on others when you likely don’t know all the facts. Karma has a way of catching up with you at some point. Note: author of this text has over 40 years of federal service in the military (34) and as government employee. (12)…. In all that time his professional observation is that 99+% of government employees do their job competently and well. It is the elected political leadership that creates the mess and inefficiencies.
Oh the irony. The pig at the trough complains about the amount of food in the trough. Also former military officer. Got out because I couldnt stand the waste. Our unit’s goal was to spend all of our money by end of Q2 so we could take other’s money because we had a real live useful mission while most of them didnt. Otherwise they would just spend it all on BS during the 4th quarter. Once had to tell my BN commander no he couldnt spend it on BS because I had gotten him program money that had to be spent a certain way. And dont get me started on other gov employees. Been private sector for 25 years since. You are just flat out wrong.
Why can’t these laid off workers collect unemployment? No reason to have months long vacation and
Have the taxpayer pay for their vacation.
Give government employees the choice of either not being paid for time off or using their vacation days–after all, they’re on vacation during the shutdown. The law that requires federal employees to get back pay is crazy. The process should have federal workers clamoring to get back to work–not kicking back and enjoying themselves.
These comments show just how ignorant so many people are (including the article author).
1.) These workers still have bills to pay.
2.) They didn’t ask for our political system to be so screwed up, and they didn’t cause it to be that way either.
3.) They want to get back to work.
4.) Non-essential doesn’t equal a job that shouldn’t exist. The longer the shutdown goes on, the more and more those “non-essential” employees start to become “essential”. Things start to break down. Systems start to not function. And those “non-essentials” are the ones who are needed to plug the gaps and keep things running long-term.
5. Most government workers live in expensive urban areas (NOT by choice). 100k a year in those areas is like 50k a year in rural Mississippi. They aren’t living in rural Kansas making 150k a year. They’re making 100-140k a year in places like DC, Northern Virginia, L.A., Chicago, Dallas, etc., where median home prices are 600, 700, 800k.
I’m as conservative as they come, but I’ve worked in the federal government (no longer do), and a lot of people are just being spiteful and hateful, and have no idea how the federal government actually functions. I despise how anti-human, anti-life, and anti-family the progressive left is, so it’s really disappointing to see conservatives (especially those claiming to be Christian), behave in similar ways.
Yes, however, if they have vacation hours in the bank, an option to cash them in should be an option.