Utah federal workers feeling impacts of government shutdown
Oct 15, 2025, 8:00 AM
The National Treasury Employees Union set up food pantries at three federal buildings in Utah earlier this year. The ongoing government shutdown makes those goods inaccessible for many workers going without paychecks. (Zachary Pope/KSL TV)
(Zachary Pope/KSL TV)
OGDEN — Federal workers in Utah said they’re worried about how they will feed their families and pay bills if the government shutdown continues.
Tuesday marks 14 full days since lawmakers failed to agree on how to fund the government.
Federal employee Amy Nelson said the IRS has been out of work for one week.
“It’s just scary,” Nelson said. “We don’t know how long this is going to go on. We got our last paychecks last Friday. We don’t know how long they have to last.”
She’s been through a government shutdown before.
“The last government shutdown, I actually worked for the private sector and my husband worked for the government, and that was actually kind of nice because we still had my paycheck coming in,” Nelson said.
Today, Nelson, her husband, son and daughter-in-law all work for the federal government.
“We told our kids, we said, ‘go work for the federal government. You won’t get laid off,'” she said.
Nelson said the instability of their current situation is nerve-wracking.
“They’ve told us ‘Go home and watch the news, and then when you hear the shutdown’s over, then come back to work,'” she said.
She’s worried this shutdown could beat the one in 2019, which lasted 35 days.
“I worry a lot for the employees that both spouses work for the federal government,” Nelson said. “They’re not getting paychecks.”
Nelson said many of her coworkers were struggling before the shutdown.
“It was just so stressful when DOGE came out and was cutting and taking the chainsaw to us, it was really stressful coming to work, and we didn’t know, ‘Are we going to have a job next week,'” she explained.
She said many federal workers earn less than those in the private sector.
“We run the gamut,” she said. “The very lowest employees, they’d make more if they worked at In and Out. They don’t get quite the benefits …but the pay is very low.”
Nelson said many of them earn just above the threshold for public assistance.
To combat the financial stress, she and others within the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 17 in Utah started food pantries.
Cabinets in three federal buildings were stocked with essentials, with help from a Davis County food bank.
“A single mom from Salt Lake, every time I saw her, she would say,’ I’m so thankful for that food pantry,'” Nelson said.
With the shutdown in place, she said no one is going to their work buildings.
“They don’t have access to the food pantry,” Nelson said. “If you turn on your computer, that violates the furlough; you will be fired.”
Nelson said it has put her coworkers in a difficult position.
“We wondered, do we have a meet and greet type thing? Meet with food pantries?,” she said.
She said she and her coworkers want to get back to work.
“We just really want to do our work and do our jobs and help the American taxpaying public, and we don’t want to be attacked,” Nelson said. “We’re not the bad guy.”
Related: SLC International Airport won’t play DHS video blaming Democrats for the government shutdown
