Workers for the Transportation Security Administration, including the 50,000 uniformed officers who screen travelers and bags at U.S. airports, will get up to a 31% pay increase, among the largest in agency history.

In December, as part of this year’s omnibus funding package, the agency secured funding to carry out multiple personnel improvements, including pay increases and fully collective bargaining rights for employees. The raises officially appeared in paychecks this month, and lawmakers, labor representatives and agency officials met at Ronald Reagan Airport on July 27 in Washington, D.C., to commemorate it.

The pay raise has been long overdue. TSA officers in particular have been paid nearly a third less than colleagues in similar positions in the rest of government, according to an agency statement.

“This funding represents by far the biggest advancement for the workforce in TSA’s history,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi. “In fact, it’s the largest federal pay bump in the last 30 years, and probably ever.”

In the long term, preserving this change may help the agency stave off attrition, which historically has been higher than average for TSA employees than for the rest of government. Thompson said he’ll be working with other members of Congress to ensure this funding continues into next year.

“My plea is we continue to support the President’s budget to fully fund this in fiscal 2024,” said TSA Administrator David Pekoske said Thursday. He noted that as travel has ramped up from the pandemic, the pay raise was critical to ensuring there was a ready workforce to accommodate the increase.

The agency has seen its applications for open positions increase by 30% and attrition decrease by 60% since the beginning of fiscal 2023, which ends Sept. 30.

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The Republican version of the 2024 Homeland Security bill proposed two policy riders that would prohibit pay reform for any TSA employee that is not specifically a transportation security officer. Pekoske said at the event that would exclude air marshals, inspectors, overseas security compliance specialists, canine handlers and other essential personnel.

The GOP bill would also bar funding for expanded collective bargaining or merit system protections, which could disrupt progress Pekoske said TSA is making on reaching an agreement with the union, the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents some 44,000 TSA employees.

The Senate discussed its version of the Homeland Security spending bill on Thursday, including $1.1 billion to support the pay increase and workforce reforms initiated this month, which will allowing TSA to retain staff, and reduce wait times for passengers, it said.

Molly Weisner is a staff reporter for Federal Times where she covers labor, policy and contracting pertaining to the government workforce. She made previous stops at USA Today and McClatchy as a digital producer, and worked at The New York Times as a copy editor. Molly majored in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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