Back pay for federal workers coming

Back pay owed to federal workers for the time they were furloughed during the government shutdown is expected to land in their bank accounts early next week, White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett said Thursday.

“There really has been an aggressive effort to get people to get their checks as soon as possible,” Hassett told reporters, a day after President Donald Trump signed a short-term funding bill that allowed the government to reopen after 43 days.

“I think that the payments will come, probably early next week,” Hassett said, as hundreds of thousands of federal workers returned to their offices.

The timing of the payments might be affected depending on the agencies where employees work.

Under federal law, government employees who are furloughed during a shutdown must be paid for the time they were out of work at their standard rate of pay “at the earliest date possible, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”

NBC News, citing a senior administration official, reported that the White House has “urged” government agencies to get workers their back pay “expeditiously and accurately.”

“Superchecks” for pay spanning Oct. 1 through Nov. 1 are expected to be sent out beginning Saturday for employees of the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management, the official said, according to NBC.

Superchecks are projected to land on Sunday in bank accounts for workers of the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, the official said.

On Monday, employees of the departments of Education, Interior, Transportation, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, NSA and the Social Security Administration, and several other agencies are expected to get superchecks.

Workers at the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Justice, Labor and the Treasury, as well as the Small Business Administration, are expected to receive superchecks on Wednesday.

Senate staff employees will get the first paycheck that they missed during the shutdown on Friday, and the second missed paycheck on Monday, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC.

House staffers received a notice that they should receive their back pay on Tuesday, or, if their accounts are at smaller banks, on Wednesday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy earlier this week said that air traffic controllers should get 70% of their back pay this week, with the remaining portion being paid next week.

Hassett said Thursday, “I was really pleased to see some of my furloughed employees show up today and there’s a lot of hugging and smiling.”