A shutdown does not empty the federal government. Each agency decides in advance, under guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, which positions must continue and which must stop. The answer depends less on how important a job seems than on how it is funded and whether it protects life or property.
This guide sorts federal workers into those who go home, those who keep working, and those who are paid regardless, and explains back pay, hardship, and the fight over layoffs during shutdowns.
Congress used to approve back pay after each shutdown. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 made it automatic for both furloughed and excepted employees. In 2025, a draft budget office memo questioned whether furloughed workers were entitled to back pay, and the law ending the shutdown guaranteed it. Workers still go weeks without income, and many turn to retirement savings loans or unemployment benefits. Federal contractors and their employees have no guaranteed back pay, and lost contract work is usually never recovered.
Some officials and workers are paid no matter what. The salaries of members of Congress come from a permanent appropriation, and the Twenty-seventh Amendment bars Congress from changing its own pay until after an election. The President's salary cannot be changed during a term, and federal judges' pay cannot be reduced under Article III. Fee-funded agencies, such as the immigration benefits agency, and programs funded in advance, such as veterans' medical care, also keep paying their staff.
Furloughs are temporary, but in October 2025 the administration also began permanent layoffs, called reductions in force, at several agencies during the shutdown, arguing that a lapse in funding justified them. Unions sued and a federal judge blocked many of the notices. The law that ended the shutdown rescinded the shutdown layoffs and barred new ones through January 30, 2026. Supporters said the layoffs reflected long-planned downsizing, while critics said shutdowns should not be used to cut the workforce.
Most of the people who keep working during a shutdown are in security, safety, and law enforcement. Active-duty troops, the Coast Guard, air traffic controllers, airport screeners, border and customs officers, prison staff, and FBI agents continue their duties and receive no paychecks until funding resumes. Long shutdowns strain these workforces, as absences among controllers and screeners rise. In November 2025, the FAA ordered flight reductions at major airports because of controller shortages, and the administration shifted other funds to pay troops during that shutdown.
Furloughs fall hardest on agencies that run grants, research, regulation, and public services funded by annual appropriations. In a full shutdown, most staff at the Departments of Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce, as well as NASA, the EPA, and much of the IRS outside filing season, are sent home. Furloughed employees may not work, even voluntarily, because the Antideficiency Act bars accepting unpaid services.
A furlough is an unpaid, involuntary leave. Excepted employees are those whose work is needed to protect life and property or is otherwise allowed by law, and they must report without pay. Exempt employees are paid from sources other than lapsed annual appropriations, such as fees or multiyear funds, and keep working normally. Shutdown excepted status is unrelated to the excepted service, a separate hiring category in the civil service. Presidential appointees confirmed by the Senate are not furloughed.
For the services that stop and keep running, read what happens in a shutdown. For more on the federal workforce, see civil servants vs. elected officials and government employee unions.