There are plenty of government workers still waiting for their back pay

Meals offered for furloughed government employees.
(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The government shutdown ended almost two weeks ago, but there are plenty of workers still waiting to receive their back pay, and many are worried that another shutdown might be around the corner.

People working for a variety of agencies either have not yet been paid, The Associated Press reports, or they've just received a small portion of what they are owed. Doug Church of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said people who worked during the shutdown have not received their overtime pay, which violates the Fair Labor Standards Act. Donna Zelina's husband works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in South Dakota, and she told AP he's been given only part of his back pay, and doesn't expect to be fully paid for another week. Her creditors wouldn't work with her during the shutdown, she said, adding, "I don't think people really understand what people do in government and just assume that everybody ... makes millions of dollars."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.