TSA Screeners Face First Missed Paycheck Friday—Expect Longer Airport Lines Starting This Weekend

Multiple Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers have told Forbes the agency is using “strong-arm tactics” to discourage sick calls during the three-week government shutdown—but airport screener absenteeism is expected to jump after the first full paycheck is missed on Friday. A TSA agent clears passengers at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport during the government shutdown. (Photo: Tony Gutierrez) Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. “We will definitely see an uptick in call-offs and maybe even resignations” after Friday, October 24, when “the first full paycheck is not paid,” one veteran TSA worker who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation told Forbes. When a shutdown exceeds two weeks, “officers start to get frantic, and they stop going to work," Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former TSA officer, told CBS News. TSA management is using “strong-arm tactics” to intimidate airport screeners from calling in sick, multiple airport screeners told Forbes, with one adding, “overall, morale is crumbling.” Darrell English, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 777, the union that represents TSA workers in Chicago, told Fox 32 Chicago he expects more absenteeism at O’Hare and Midway airports “because of [TSA officers] not having a check at all,” which would result in longer airport security wait times. On Monday, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport—the country’s busiest—warned travelers of “longer than usual” wait times due to TSA staffing shortages. Why Might Friday Be A Trigger Day In This Shutdown? TSA workers will miss their first full paycheck on that day. The average TSA screener makes $48,520 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and TSA union officials have told Forbes many members live paycheck to paycheck. In past shutdowns, absenteeism among TSA workers increased after they missed a full paycheck, as many were forced to seek temporary gig work while their paychecks were being held. TSA workers are already taking side gigs driving for Uber, DoorDash or Lyft “to put food on the table,” Neal Gosman, treasurer of AFGE Local 899, a union representing TSA workers in Minnesota, told Reuters. "I'm nervous that [my colleagues’] funds are running out," Angela Grana, a TSA officer at the LaPlata Airport in Durango, Colo. told the local ABC News affiliate. "I don't know how they're going to pay for their childcare. I don't know how they're going to pay for their gas and their food to get to work.” During the 35-day shutdown in 2018-2019, roughly 10% of TSA workers called in sick. What “strong-Arm Tactics” Do Tsa Officers Say They Are Encountering? Three TSA workers based in different parts of the country told Forbes colleagues who called in sick received curiously similar responses, which led them to suspect coordination center operators were reading from a script; Forbes has reached out to TSA for comment. Officers who called in sick were told their “failure to report for work” would result in them being furloughed, “a non-paid, non-duty status.” They were told “all unscheduled absences are being tracked” and management would “review your reason for needing to be absent today.” If the TSA determined absences to be unauthorized, officers were told, they could be “placed in an Absent Without Leave (AWOL) status,” which would mean not getting paid for the sick day “and possible administrative action,” according to multiple people familiar with the responses. These tactics are having a “chilling effect” on TSA employees “even when they or their children are actually sick or cannot afford to come to work,” one TSA worker told Forbes, adding, “It’s crazy the level of low they are willing to go against their own workforce. People may be forced to leave kids at home alone for fear of losing their jobs.” Another officer recounted that a colleague did not take a personal day to attend the funeral of a close friend because she believed “she’ll be told she is going to be fired.” Surprising Fact A “sizeable number” of TSA workers are still in debt from having to take out loans during the 2018-2019 shutdown, multiple union officials told Forbes. Once the government is funded, workers will receive back pay in a lump, “so they tax the sh*t out of it,” one TSA worker complained. (While more tax may be withheld on a back-pay check, the final tax rate will be the same as regular wage when 2025 taxes are filed next year.) Further Reading Hundreds Of Unpaid TSA Agents Are Calling In Sick—Expect Longer Airport Security Lines (Forbes) Got a tip? Share confidential information with Forbes. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions