Federal employees, including those who were furloughed during the longest government shutdown in history, will receive full back pay, according to new guidance from the Office of Personnel Management.
In a memo distributed on Thursday, OPM said workers will receive their “standard rate of pay,” including overtime, night pay and other differentials they would have earned had the shutdown not occurred.
Days into the shutdown, the Trump administration warned that furloughed workers might not receive pay, instead emphasizing those who continued working through the lapse. But with funding now restored, the OPM memo directs federal agencies to pay all employees.
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Agencies have also been told they can offer flexible schedules or approve personal leave for workers who need additional time to return because of the length of the shutdown.
The funding bill President Donald Trump signed Wednesday night also requires agencies to rescind layoffs that occurred because of the shutdown.
Prior to the bill’s passage, the administration had been locked in lawsuits over those layoffs. Thousands of government jobs were cut across agencies, including the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education and Homeland Security.
