IRS reverses shutdown backpay delay after union pressure, returns to Nov. 19 target

The Trump administration told reporters on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2025 that Treasury Department employees should expect to see all backpay in a super check covering pay from Oct. 1 through Nov. 15 by Nov. 19, which is Wednesday of next week. The administration projected that federal employee paychecks would begin going out starting Saturday Nov. 16 and complete the list of payments by Nov. 19. A senior administration official said the White House urged agencies to get payments out expeditiously and accurately so workers are not left waiting longer than necessary.

The IRS sent a memo to employees Friday morning, Nov. 15, saying they would not receive any backpay until Nov. 24, and they wouldn't be made whole for missed paychecks until Dec. 8. The memo stated: 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. This contradicted the administration's timeline announced just one day earlier.

National Treasury Employees Union President DGDoreen Greenwald said Friday that the IRS had not displayed the proper urgency in working to issue backpay to its employees. She told Government Executive: 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. 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.

After NTEU's public criticism, the IRS reversed course on Friday afternoon, Nov. 15. The agency sent a new email to employees stating: After ongoing conversations with the National Finance Center, the IRS now anticipates the majority of backpay will be paid on 11/19/2025. The IRS later told Federal News Network that the earlier internal communications about Nov. 24 and Dec. 8 dates are no longer accurate. MRMike Radock, acting director of IRS Office of Human Resources Operations, told staff the agency's payroll and employee services divisions are working collaboratively to ensure employees receive pay and backpay.

The 2019 Government Employees Fair Treatment Act, enacted during Trump's first term, entitles all federal employees, furloughed and excepted alike, to backpay following the end of government shutdowns. The law states backpay must be issued at the earliest date possible once funding has been restored. The IRS's initial delay appeared to violate this statutory requirement since other agencies were meeting the Nov. 19 deadline while IRS planned to wait until Nov. 24 or later.

IRS employees had been furloughed during the 43-day government shutdown that lasted from Oct. 1 through Nov. 13, 2025. The shutdown ended when Trump signed a bill passed by Congress on Nov. 13. IRS employees missed two full paychecks and received one partial paycheck during this period. The IRS furloughed nearly half of its approximately 74,000 workers and tried to lay off roughly 1,400 others, though those cuts were reversed as a result of the bill reopening the government.

Nearly all other federal employees were on track to receive backpay by Nov. 19 according to the administration's timeline. Employees at the General Services Administration and Office of Personnel Management had a projected backpay processing date of Nov. 16, though those checks would only include base pay with corrections in the next pay cycle. Employees at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, and Treasury, as well as the Small Business Administration, all had Nov. 19 as their projected processing date.

IRS staff are dealing with a significant backlog of work that piled up during the shutdown. Greenwald noted: They're coming back to their workplaces with inventory that has backed up, with messages on their phones, with emails they couldn't answer, all the things that they weren't allowed to do during a furlough. The agency's operations were limited during the shutdown: it generally didn't pay tax refunds, scaled back live telephone customer service, closed walk-in Taxpayer Assistance Centers, and cancelled appointments with the Independent Office of Appeals and Taxpayer Advocate Service.