In an ironic twist to the ongoing challenge of hiring and staffing air traffic controllers, the FAA now faces a shortage of qualified instructors. According to Bloomberg, the FAA has ramped up recruiting in a scramble to fill more than 3,900 vacancies at towers and centers across the country, but the number of instructors at the academy in Oklahoma City hasn’t kept pace. The number of trainees in July swelled to about 550, requiring 42 instructors to work double shifts in an effort to keep up, according to various media reports. In March, the number of instructors working double shifts was just six, according to the Independent.
Some of the instructors apparently welcomed the double shifts for the increased pay, while one instructor told Bloomberg the double shifts have left some instructors “walking around like zombies.” Instructors pulling the double shifts don’t get to sleep until the wee hours and have to be up by 5 a.m. to meet the first 7 a.m. classes. Almost all of them are retired former controllers and are in their 60s. The instructors recently got a new labor contract and are paid $46 an hour. Most of them don’t work directly for the FAA. They are employed by contractor Science Applications International Corp.
46 bucks a week is about a 64K* take home pay a year. With all that fresh moola from the government maybe the instructors should be paid better than that for a regular work week. Maybe they can get extra cash from ICE.
* My math $46 *40 hours * 50 weeks * .7 take home pay.
Science Applications International Corp gets over $7 billion annually from its contracts with the Federal government. They pay instructors $46 per hour. It would be interesting to know how much they get per instructor-hour to administer the hiring and pay of those instructors.
good point bobd. SAIC pays instructors about $45 an hour (Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter), but the FAA gets billed closer to $60–70 an hour (SAIC CIO-SP3), about 30–50% more. That spread goes to benefits, HR, and overhead, with profit only 5–10% (GMA CPA). Looks steep, but it’s mostly costs. 🤔
So 75-80h per week. Whats the factor for OT?
I wanna bet take home pay is a impressive number.
Just wonder how to keep a family functional when all your SO and kids ever see is a bushy tailed squirrel running out the door on Monday and a barely breathing half dead zombie returning home on Friday…
The tail is wagging with the dog if double shifts are the norm.