Thousands of D.C. workers can expect to receive cash windfalls by Labor Day after D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray signed a proposal Wednesday that will pay employees for furlough days they were forced to take in 2011 as city leaders scrambled to balance the budget.

“While we based the furloughs on the best information that we had at the time, it turned out that we didn’t need those furloughs,” Gray said. “We are signing a bill today that approves the return of the furlough dollars to those who were furloughed.”