Before anything else today, let me say this:  I’m quite sure that very few security officers in the TSA are truly evil or have even bad intent.  I suspect most are just trying to earn a living in a world where that has become quite a bigger challenge in the past few years.

After reading a CNN story found HERE, I got curious as to what we’re buying when it comes to security.   So I checked jobs at the TSA website to see what was being advertised.  What I was interested in was the going rate for a TSA officer. 

I was more disappointed than I expected and that’s saying something.

Apparently most of these jobs start as part time and can continue to be so for as much as 3 years.  That means less benefits and the officer will almost certainly be working another job to make it in this world.  Anyone who has worked 2 jobs will tell you that that is a draining experience.  Even if you’re working a steady 40 hours as week, a 2 job lifestyle is much harder on a person than a single steady one job lifestyle.

We pay these vaunted officers $14 / hour roughly to do this job part time.  Again, in this world we actually life in, that ain’t much.  Do people survive on less?  Sure.  Do many people survive on less?  No.  We have this idea that honest work at low pay rewards and frankly as someone who has done honest work at low pay, I can tell you it doesn’t reward you.  It just stresses you out and generally depresses you. 

I wonder how vigilant the average person is working 2 jobs (at least) for pretty low pay in an environment that places them on the frontline for abuse?

If a worker gets a full time gig, they earn about $29,000 a year and they stop out at a stunning $43,000 per year.   These folks can make a maximum of $43K per year and that equates roughly to someone over 25 years of age who has achieved an Associates Degree.  

Look at it differently.  The median income for an officer lies somewhere in the vicinity of  $36,000 / year.   My point is that we are, at the very best, hiring the middle section of people who below average in capability as determined by earnings. 

Then we abuse them a bit more with lackluster benefits (their healthcare can cost hundreds of dollars per month if they think they can afford it and they probably cannot without working a 2nd job again.)

Let me suggest that we want security officers who are *more* capable than average.  We want officers who are more vigilant than average.  We want officers who we would at the least hire to be police officers in a major city (and they aren’t) and we probably want a better person than entry level police material. 

Because good security involves critical thinking and the exercise of good judgement.  That costs something.   Instead, we’re hiring a person who is roughly qualified to work at a Sears department store.

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