[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 15 (Monday, January 22, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E88]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF THE LOW-WAGE FEDERAL CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEE BACK PAY ACT 
                                OF 2018

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 22, 2018

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the Low-Wage Federal 
Contractor Employee Back Pay Act of 2018 to grant back pay to 
federally-contracted retail, food, custodial and security service 
workers who are furloughed during a federal government shutdown this 
fiscal year (fiscal year 2018). This bill applies to all three branches 
of the federal government. After the 2013 government shutdown, federal 
workers received back pay, but not federal contract workers. While I 
believe that all federal employees and federal contract workers should 
receive pack pay after a shutdown, we know that we cannot get Congress 
to make whole all who are hurt by a shutdown. My bill focuses 
specifically on low-wage federal contract workers, some of whom work 
here on the Capitol grounds providing Members of Congress and 
congressional staff with daily services, because these are the workers 
most likely to be irretrievably hurt by lost wages during a shutdown.
  Many federal contract workers earn little more than the minimum wage 
and receive few, if any, benefits. While some are unionized with a 
little better wage, all are the lowest-paid workers in the federal 
government and should not be punished because Congress has failed to do 
its job to keep the government functioning. Congress, historically, has 
provided back pay to federal employees, who often work in the same 
buildings as these low-wage contract workers, furloughed during 
government shutdowns--but not low-wage contract workers. However, both 
groups of workers deserve to be made whole after these shutdowns. I 
recognize, of course, that contract workers are employees of 
contractors, but the distinction between federal workers and, at least, 
the lowest-paid contract workers, who, for example, keep buildings 
clean, fails when it comes to a deliberate government shutdown. Unlike 
many other contractors, those who employ low-wage service workers have 
little latitude to help make up for lost wages. Low-wage, federally-
contracted service workers can least afford the loss of pay during a 
shutdown and should not have to go to work every day while everyone 
else in their federal buildings likely received back pay.
  The nation's capital is the high-profile home of the federal 
government's complicity with contractors who pay low wages through 
leases and contracts with federal agencies. At least this legislation 
would provide some parity to their low-wage federal contract workers.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

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