Looking for a great deal?
Get ALL THREE of our new thank-you gifts when you donate $120.
This is a limited time offer – so act soon!
Some facts about the finances of furloughed federal workers
As the partial government shutdown is about to enter its 35th day, here are a few facts about the hundreds of thousands of affected federal workers:
- The median income of a furloughed federal worker is about $67,000 a year, according to Sentier Research
- About 75 percent of those workers are working paycheck-to-paycheck, according to John Challenger of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas
- Challenger says workers have missed about $3.5 billion in total take-home pay so far
- Eighteen percent are African-American, compared to just 13 percent in the workforce overall, according to Andrew Stettner at the Century Foundation
- About one in three federal workers is represented by a union, compared to fewer than one in 10 in the private sector
Click the audio player above to hear the full story.
If you’re a member of your local public radio station, we thank you — because your support helps those stations keep programs like Marketplace on the air. But for Marketplace to continue to grow, we need additional investment from those who care most about what we do: superfans like you.
Your donation — as little as $5 — helps us create more content that matters to you and your community, and to reach more people where they are – whether that’s radio, podcasts or online.
When you contribute directly to Marketplace, you become a partner in that mission: someone who understands that when we all get smarter, everybody wins.