ST. LOUIS — Thursday will mark day 34 of the government shutdown, and many federal employees are finding it harder each day to meet their basic needs.
The average salary of a federal employee is around $50,000.
Two paychecks of that $50,000 annual salary comes out to $3,846.
Compare that to the $2,328 workers with that same salary lost in the next longest government shutdown and you have a difference of $1,517.
So, the longer this shutdown goes on, the more people not getting paid will struggle.
"It's not looking good at this point," said Cynthia Aberly.
She's one of more than 400,000 people being frozen out of a paycheck by the federal government.
"There's not much I can do so it's just a wish and a prayer at this moment," Aberly said.
It's a problem Benjamin Mundwiller understands. He runs a temp agency which has seen more people in his agency.
"The longer the shutdown goes on we are seeing more and more of those employees coming to us to make ends meet. Looking for something, whether it be temporary or a day here or weekend there type of thing," explained Mundwiller.
An unprecedented time in history.
"I did not want to be a part of this type of history, I wanted to be a part of history, but not like this," added Aberly.