Hundreds of thousands of federal civilian employees missed their first full paycheck Friday as the government shutdown deepened, after Democrats refused to support a clean continuing resolution and instead pushed for additional Affordable Care Act funding provisions.
According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, an estimated 658,000 civilian employees at the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, and Veterans Affairs did not receive pay, marking the first full missed payroll cycle since the shutdown began.
Employees at the Executive Office of the President and several smaller agencies went unpaid.
The White House backed a clean CR to sustain government operations at current funding levels without policy riders.
But Democrat leaders confirmed this week they would not support any short-term funding measure that does not include ACA subsidy protections and expanded Medicaid matching rates, provisions Republicans say fall outside the scope of a stopgap bill.
If the shutdown extends through Tuesday, roughly 686,000 additional federal civilian workers across most remaining agencies are projected to miss full paychecks, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
By Thursday, another 37,000 employees at the departments of State and Education are expected to lose pay as well.
Federal workers received partial checks on Oct. 10, 14, or 16, missing three days’ worth of pay. The current lapse marks the first complete period without compensation for both exempt and furloughed personnel.
Agency contingency plans show approximately 670,000 federal employees are furloughed without pay, while another 730,000 continue to report for duty in essential roles but are not being paid during the shutdown.
If no CR is passed by the end of the month, more than 1.8 million total paychecks will have been withheld since Oct. 1.
That figure could rise to more than 4.5 million checks by Dec. 1 if the shutdown persists, according to BPC estimates.
While the Trump administration has not guaranteed back pay for furloughed workers, breaking from precedent, the Internal Revenue Service has publicly stated that backpay is legally guaranteed.
The administration has separately taken steps to ensure uniformed service members are paid, reallocating $8 billion to cover the Oct. 15 military payroll.
The Pentagon also confirmed Friday it had accepted a $130 million private donation to help fund additional military pay obligations during the shutdown.
Economic fallout is accelerating.
The Century Foundation reported roughly 20,000 unemployment insurance claims from federal workers over the past three weeks.
Lenders, including JPMorgan Chase, have announced interest-free bridge loans and fee waivers for impacted federal customers.
On Oct. 31, members of every branch of the U.S. military are projected to miss a paycheck for the first time in U.S. history if the clean CR continues to stall in the Senate without enough Democrat support.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
