Something seems backwards. A couple of days ago, people at work were finally talking about the potential government shutdown and the fact that it probably wouldn’t affect us because we are paid by the project and funding has already been allocated for our specific project while other government workers might get some unpaid vacation time because they are paid more directly.
Aside from that, the government shutdown should affect only non-essential personnel, meaning that essential personnel would still have to report for work, even if the federal budget expires. That would include police, fire fighters, air traffic controllers, and other jobs that directly impact public safety. I am clearly a non-essential employee and honestly, would not mind a few days of unpaid leave even though it is very unlikely to happen now.
Anyway, shouldn’t essential personnel be paid more than non-essential personnel? The simple distinction between essential and non-essential indicates that one group of people is more important than another group of people, and therefore should be compensated more generously for the work. I know fire fighters, EMT’s, and police officers don’t make near what most engineers make but it would be a major problem if they were to all stop working, even for a day, but society could live without engineers for awhile. Eventually, the lack of engineers would cause a problem but it wouldn’t be the disaster of going without police officers for a day.
Generally, people are paid based on the skill level of their position.
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