Federal Workers Sue Government For Withholding Pay During Shutdown

    An article on Huffington Post states how a group of federal workers who had their pay delayed due to the shutdown are suing the federal government, saying it violated its own labor laws by giving them abbreviated paychecks in October. 
    In a suit that was filed October 24th, five federal employees who were required to work through the shutdown accuse the government of failing to pay them minimum wage and overtime during one pay period. By withholding several days' worth of pay, the government ran afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act, they claim. "These are by no means highly paid federal employees," said the lawyer, Heidi Burakiewicz, of Mehri & Skalet in Washington. "They didn't know how they would support their children during the shutdown. They had to defer payments for bills." Even if these workers were fully compensated later, they were still paid less than the minimum wage on their scheduled payday, the suit claims. According to Burakiewicz, many employees who worked overtime during the shutdown had their additional hours recorded but couldn't be paid for them in their next paycheck. "Its violation was willful, and in conscious or reckless disregard of the requirements [of the law]," the suit says of the government.
   That is sad, no doubt. But what about the 200,000 people and small businesses all over America who live off a much smaller paycheck who had to go without a job and will not receive back-pay of any kind? Honestly, the fact that the government shutdown cost our economy $24 billion just because our leaders, who we've put in charge, couldn't come to an agreement shows we have much more to worry about.