By Antoine Gara, Forbes
How much did the federal government shutdown cost? After 35 days of deadlock, $6,354,845,148 in wages had gone unpaid to 747,573 federal employees. Every second that ticked by added $2,118 to the figure. Some staffers were furloughed; many more worked without pay. At the Department of Homeland Security, for example, some 245,405 employees were unpaid and 32,706 furloughed. At Treasury, 36,309 workers were furloughed and 82,336 worked unpaid. At the Environmental Protection Agency, 52% of its staffers worked without compensation.
Getting a handle on the magnitude of this disruption—as well as its granular details—was no small feat. A little-known New York City fintech company named Enigma tabulated the rising costs in real-time on a website it threw up called Government Shutdown 2018–2019.
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