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
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