Besides crushing impact of a looming government shutdown on the lives of thousands of affected, suddenly furloughed federal employees. One of them is Audrey Murray, 64, a security officer at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Beginning October 6, Murray will be laid off from work—suddenly losing her hourly wage of $20.22. This new amendment will leave her and her family at risk of severe financial hardship. The joint appropriation to prevent the shutdown was meant to last at least through Monday. It would push roughly 750,000 federal employees onto unpaid leave each day it lasts.
Murray’s situation is particularly dire. She now is a full-time caregiver for her 12-year-old granddaughter. Further, she is a single mother to two teenage sons, which leads to high monthly expenses. Her mortgage payment is $2,200 and she spends up to $600 a month on groceries for her family. Now without her paycheck, she finds herself uncertain about how she’ll cover these expenses.
It’s heartbreaking to see everyone heartbroken,” Murray said, reminiscing on the larger effect that the shutdown has had on her hometown. Others are right there with her, as the shadow of uncertainty about their financial future hangs heavy.
Murray’s experience is not unique. Willie Price, 65, former newspaper delivery and food service worker at the Library of Congress. He’s doing so while tackling heavy fiscal pressure on the horizon. Price delivers newspapers early in the morning and works part-time in food services, earning about 16 cents per newspaper and $25 an hour at her job. With the government shutdown, for Kelly she’ll no longer be getting those regular paychecks from her food service job.
I have no idea how to move forward,” Price confessed, illustrating the panic that low-wage employees across the country are feeling as they enter this crisis-stricken succession of weeks.
The prospect of extended economic hardship hangs heavily over employees like Murray and Price. The last government shutdown in 2018 became the longest on record, extending over a month. Shutdowns in the past have averaged four days in length. The new trend scares a lot of people, particularly those who need predictable, reliable income the most.
Low-wage workers will be hit hardest by this most recent government breakdown. This severely limits the impact of those protections, particularly for federally contracted security officers, office cleaners, and food service workers. Many of these workers already live paycheck to paycheck, making the prospect of unpaid leave or delayed wages particularly distressing.
Murray still recalled the bitter realities of the 2018 shutdown. She was able to pay back family members who lent her money to help get by, only after two years. The impending shutdown would introduce just that kind of crisis as households like hers are made to reconsider their budgets and savings.
Consumers are uncertain about how they’re going to meet their next monthly obligation, Murray noted. She emphasized the urgency of the situation by asking, “How am I going to feed my children and pay my bills?”
As hundreds of thousands of federal employees brace for entering unpaid leave, they are forced to come to terms with what losing their incomes entails. The specter of financial instability continues to hang over every household that depends on regular, predictable paychecks to make ends meet.