For five weeks, the people screening passengers and bags at US airports have been working without pay as the government shutdown — the second in four months — stretches on.
It’s hitting a workforce that often lives paycheck to paycheck on middle-class salaries and is turning to food banks and community donations to get by.
More than 300 Transportation Security Administration officers (TSOs) have left the agency since mid-February, compounding staffing shortages that have created hourslong lines at airports like Orlando, Houston Hobby, and Philadelphia.
“We know these are not highly paid jobs, and we know that from the last government shutdown that it’s difficult for TSA agents to work on a sustained basis without getting any income,” Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst and the president of Atmosphere Research Group, told Business Insider. “The need to find supplementary jobs that will provide some type of income is completely understandable.”
These screening officers receive modest pay but collectively have ensured that the US air travel system remains one of the world’s safest and busiest in the quarter century since the 9/11 plane hijackings.
Most of the roughly 50,000 agents who interact with passengers daily start around $40,000 annually. They average “anywhere from $60,000 to $75,000” as they gain experience, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Business Insider.
TSOs living in more expensive cities, including Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco, receive a locality-based pay boost that can put them into at least the high five figures before any bonus opportunities.
Beyond frontline officers, senior officials — like regional directors who oversee multiple airports and managers at TSA headquarters who typically don’t screen bags — can make six figures.
However, all of that pay is now on hold until Congress reaches a deal to fund DHS, whose funding lapsed on February 14 amid an impasse over the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown. TSOs received their first $0 paycheck in mid-March.
How TSO pay works
According to TSA Careers — a non-government website that the agency directed Business Insider to for information — TSO pay is organized into pay bands D through L, roughly corresponding to the federal government’s GS-5 to GS-15 scale for civil servants.
Each band is divided into 10 “steps” that reflect time in service and incremental pay increases, with employees able to reach Step 10 within their given grade in about 3 years. TSOs are promoted to higher pay bands based on seniority and performance and can earn more by working overtime, nights, and Sundays.
At the bottom, brand-new TSOs, classified as Band D (roughly GS-5 equivalent) at Step 1, earn about $35,000 a year before locality or bonus pay, per the table. Most US cities receive an additional 16.8% locality adjustment in 2026, putting the lowest earners at an annual salary of around $40,000.
That works out to roughly $19 per hour for a standard 40-hour workweek — two and a half times the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and greater than any state minimum wage.
According to the global statistics website World Population Review, $40,000 still falls below the cost of living for a single adult with no children in most states; median wages for full-time workers in the US are about $63,000 a year, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Climbing the pay ladder — and living in more expensive cities — leads to higher wages for security screeners. At the top of the D band, for example, a Step 10 TSO in an airport with standard locality pay would earn about $52,300 annually, or about $25 per hour.
The table below shows the full range of what TSOs make across pay bands and steps before locality adjustments.
TSOs in about 50 higher-cost-of-living cities receive additional locality pay, with the largest being in San Francisco, where agents earn 46.3% on top of their base salary.
That would put a Band D Step 1 TSO new hire at about $50,500 a year in the Bay Area, after locality pay but before any extra income. Their Band D base salary caps out at about $65,600; Band E caps out at about $81,000.
A handful of other locations — including Seattle, Boston, Houston, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Hartford, Connecticut, Washington, DC, and Alaska — receive locality boosts of at least 30%.
For example, TSOs at the top of the E band in DC, with a 33.9% locality, make about $74,000 annually. New York TSOs with a 38% locality in the same band earn between roughly $59,000 and $76,500.
TSOs earn more by climbing the leadership ladder
Experienced TSOs with years on the job and strong performance can advance into higher pay bands associated with management, analytical, and supervisory positions.
For example, moving into the F band — which includes roles like Lead TSO or Security Training Instructor — would place that agent in a salary range of roughly $61,000 to $79,000.
Program analysts, who work behind the scenes to optimize TSA efficiency through strategic planning and coordination, can fall into the G band. In a standard locality, they make between roughly $74,000 and $96,000. Cities like Houston or Hartford would push into the six figures.
The highest earners include top TSA leadership, like Federal Security Directors (FSDs), who oversee operations at their assigned airports and can earn about $162,600 in base pay at the top of the K and L bands.
Locality pay puts this even higher. A Step 1 FSD in San Francisco would make about $183,000 a year, rising to roughly $238,000 at Step 10, per the table. In Los Angeles, the base salary would range from about $170,000 to $222,000.
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