Congress is not doing its job. The federal government has been shut down for more than a month and there is no budget. One might argue that members of Congress should not be getting paid.

That’s not the way it works, as apparently there is a law that says members of Congress have their paychecks coming to them whether they have earned them or not.

Some members, including three from the all-Republican Utah delegation, have had the decency to inform the paymasters on Capitol Hill that they will not be picking up their checks as long as the shutdown continues.

Sen. John Curtis, Rep. Mike Kennedy and Rep. Blake Moore are forgoing their pay — $174,000 a year — for the duration. Curtis and Kennedy have even introduced legislation to make everyone else in Congress do the same whenever the government is shut down — and most other federal employees aren’t being paid.

The balance of the Utah delegation — Sen. Mike Lee, Rep. Burgess Owens and Rep. Celeste Maloy — are apparently still taking a paycheck. Even as everyone from members of their own staff to air traffic controllers to FBI agents are either sent home or, as “essential workers,” expected to show up, gratis.

It might be no more than a symbolic gesture, an expression of solidarity. But some things are more important than money, and at least John Curtis, Blake Moore and Mike Kennedy have earned the right to feel good that they are not sponging on the public dime when so many others are going without.

Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.