IRS hastens backpay timeline after union outcry

This story has been updated at 4:50 p.m. ET.

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday afternoon told employees that "the majority" of outstanding backpay due to furloughed and excepted employees impacted by the 43-day government shutdown would be paid on Nov. 19, after a union that represents IRS workers raised its ire.

"After ongoing conversations with the National Finance Center, the IRS now anticipates the majority of backpay will be paid on 11/19/2025," the message stated.

Earlier on Friday, the National Treasury Employees Union said that the Internal Revenue Service had not displayed the “proper urgency” in working to issue backpay to its employees.

The administration told reporters Thursday that Treasury Department employees should expect to see all of their backpay in a “super check”—covering pay from Oct. 1 through Nov. 15—by Nov. 19, or Wednesday of next week. But in a memo regarding the IRS’ timekeeping system Friday, the agency advised employees that they would not receive any backpay until Nov. 24, and they would not be made whole for missed paychecks until Dec. 8.

“The week of 11/24, time and attendance records for Pay Period 20 will be updated systematically to change servicewide furlough to retroactive furlough pay beginning on 10/8,” the memo states. “[Employees] should expect to receive their back pay on the 12/8 salary check. On 11/14 and 11/17, time and attendance records for Pay Period 21 will be updated systematically to change servicewide furlough to retroactive furlough pay . . . Employees should expect to receive their back pay on the 11/24 salary check.”

During a call with reporters Friday, NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said it’s unfair to make agency employees wait nearly until Thanksgiving to receive their first paycheck in more than six weeks.

“We’re starting to see similar messaging at other agencies, but it seems as if IRS is the slowest right now, and we want to see all federal agencies working to make sure that furloughed employees receive their backpay by Nov. 19 or earlier,” she said. “This has been an incredibly difficult time for them. They’ve gone without pay, they’ve had to figure out how to put groceries on the table, some people are working other jobs. The stories are heart-wrenching, so to find out that there isn’t an urgency behind getting them paid is just outrageous.”

The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 2019 Government Employees Fair Treatment Act, a law enacted during Trump’s first term entitling all federal employees, furloughed and excepted alike, to backpay following the end of government shutdown, states that backpay must be issued “at the earliest date possible” once funding has been restored. And OPM guidance issued Wednesday said that Trump administration is “committed to ensuring that retroactive pay is provided as soon as possible.”

Some other agencies have moved swiftly to issue back pay. State Department employees began seeing paychecks hit their bank accounts as early as Thursday, while the Interior Department told workers they would receive half of their backpay on Monday, Nov. 17, and the second half on Nov. 25.

Greenwald said that a delay in issuing back pay could put some workers in a precarious position with bill collectors.

“I recall early on in the shutdown, some employees were given IOUs to present to their landlord or creditors,” she said. “Now if you still haven’t been paid for several weeks and go to your creditor and show them an IOU, they’ll look at you funny: ‘The government already reopened and we’ve been told that you’ve been paid.’ But many of these thousands of workers haven’t been paid and apparently aren’t planned to be paid any time soon. How are these people going to plan for Thanksgiving?”