Top Trump officials set to receive $10k raise while federal workers aren't getting paid

Hundreds of top Trump administration officials are reportedly set to receive annual raises of around $10,000 per year, while hundreds of thousands of federal employees aren’t getting paid.

The Washington Post reported that the raises are likely an unintended consequence of the shutdown.

Lawmakers failed to pass bills to fund multiple federal agencies on December 21, which also allowed an existing pay freeze to lapse, leading to the pay raises.

Without legislative action to stop them, cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries and even Vice President Mike Pence will each get a raise.

Pence’s salary, for example, is currently $230,700, it will reportedly increase to $243,500.

This is all happening while around 800,000 federal employees are currently unpaid because of the shutdown.

Some lawmakers are critical of the decision, with Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey telling The Post in part, "It is absolutely outrageous that the Trump administration would even consider taking advantage of the shutdown to dole out huge raises to the vice president and its political appointees."

The government shut down because Congress didn’t agree to the $5 billion dollars Trump wants to fund a U.S.-Mexico border wall.