Rank-and-file workers have a lot to lose

Effects are vast as shutdown drags on

As a historic federal government shutdown drags on, rank-and-file workers are the ones with the most to lose, said a longtime federal employee.

Andrew Cabiness, 44, of Munster, went through the 17-day federal government shutdown in October 2013. With a background in mathematics, he has worked for the U.S. Census Bureau for 19 years.

Again furloughed, this time he is more concerned with thousands of hourly wage workers who missed their first full paycheck on Friday.

Many can’t afford to be without steady pay and may be forced to look for other jobs. If they do, it will also force managers to hire replacements once the shutdown ends, he said.

Asked what he would tell President Donald Trump or U.S. congressional leaders directly, he said they needed to understand the worry for these workers who wait for their next paycheck.

“It’s incredibly stressful; it’s a lot of anxiety,” he said. “And, it feels worse when it’s not anything you did.”

“This just seems like using a bunch of federal workers as leverage to get something that doesn’t relate to what we do,” Cabiness said.

Last time, in 2013, he and his wife felt a bigger strain, he said. Back then, he was the primary breadwinner while she was studying respiratory therapy.

Over two weeks without pay meant they had to stop hiring a babysitter and negotiate to pay their mortgage a little late.

“A lot of things that I imagine a lot of people had to do this time, we had to do then,” he said.

This time, they are in better financial shape.

He chose to dip into his retirement savings to help them pay bills and float until he goes back to work. If he doesn’t make up that difference, at worst he might have to work around another year or so before retirement, he said.

“I’m not looking for sympathy for myself, but I do understand that people ... across the government are having serious problems right now, because of this,” he said.

“It’s a very real impact on 800,000 people and regardless of whether you are for or against what’s being negotiated — that this is a terrible way to do it,” Cabiness said. “People can be for the wall or against the wall. Using this as a way to resolve that is a horrible way to do it.”

Having the second extended shutdown in just over five years was also concerning, he said.

“A lot of reasons that people go and work for the federal government is that it’s stable employment. As the economy goes up and down over the years, federal employment stays pretty stable,” he said. “This is starting to give people second thoughts about that.”

Federal workers received pay stubs Friday with nothing but zeroes on them as the effects of the government shutdown hit home, deepening anxieties about mortgage payments and unpaid bills.

All told, an estimated 800,000 government employees missed their paychecks for the first time since the shutdown began three weeks ago. Saturday it became the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

Roughly 420,000 federal employees were deemed essential and are working unpaid. An additional 380,000 are staying home without pay.

Lawmakers tried to reassure federal employees on Friday that Congress was aware of the financial hardship they are enduring. By a vote of 411-7, the House passed a bill requiring that all government workers re- ceive retroactive pay after the partial shutdown ends. The Senate approved the bill unanimously Thursday. The president is expected to sign the legislation.

Government contractors, who have been placed indefinitely on unpaid leave, for now, don’t get compensated for lost hours. The minimum wage for contractors is about $10 per hour, per the U.S. Department of Labor.

The typical federal employee makes $37 an hour, which translates into $1,480 a week, according to Labor Department data. That’s nearly $1.2 billion in lost pay each week, when multiplied by 800,000 federal workers.

Many workers live paycheck to paycheck, despite the strong economy and the ultra-low unemployment rate, and would struggle if their wages or salaries were interrupted.

A Federal Reserve survey in May found that 40 percent of Americans would have to borrow or sell something to make a $400 emergency payment.