Air Traffic Controllers Say $10,000 Shutdown Bonuses Are Tearing the Workforce Apart — And Jeopardize Safety

Air traffic controllers who had perfect attendance during the government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonuses. Department of Homeland Security is paying out $10,000 to TSA screeners.

Santa’s coming to town a little early

President Trump wanted to give air traffic controllers and technicians BONUSES for showing up to work EVERY DAY during the government shutdown… and TODAY IS THE DAY!

776 patriotic men and women will get $10K checks, just in time for… pic.twitter.com/r9CHT0UyF7

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 21, 2025

This follows an announcement from the President during the shutdown that:

• any controller who doesn’t go to work will have their pay docked.
  
• those who show up and take no time off during the shutdown will be recommended for $10,000 bonuses.
  
• those who took time off “will have a negative mark” on their record, in the view of the President, and those who leave in the near future will receive “no payment…of any kind.”
  
• those who leave will be quickly replaced.
  
• problems with air traffic control are Joe Biden’s fault, because he failed to fix the system.

Most of this would have been illegal. At the time Secretary Duffy acknowledged he would need to work with Congress on the bonuses. Nonetheless, just like yesterday’s announcement of an $18 fee to travel without ID (and for that matter the administration’s tariffs), the law doesn’t seem to fully constrain this administration.

One Mile at a Time points to a Reddit thread where controllers are sounding off, furious about the bonuses for the colleagues who showed up to work every day during the shutdown. Many controllers had talked openly about sick outs on Reddit.

“This decision isn’t just unfair; it is divisive. It turns our collective sacrifices into a grading scale and pits controller against controller. It sends a message that the dedication of this entire workforce is somehow worth less than the circumstances of a few.”

“I was sick one day during the entire shutdown. I took 4 OT shifts. I took credit on Sundays so I could play Warhammer before showing up to my afternoon shift. (1-2 hours) This sucks”

“Next time I get sick I guess I’ll show up and puke on the floor and then start singing the star spangled banner to prove my patriotism.”

“This has cemented my decision to use even more leave during the next shutdown. What an absolute way to make every controller feel abandoned by the government that supposedly ‘values’ us.”

“Now imagine if someone has a midair or near miss during the next shutdown – and if they are asked what went wrong they say they were actually super sick and fatigued but went to work hoping to get a possible bonus? What a liability issue they just created.”

“Controllers are already stretched to their limits. We are already fighting stagnant pay being further eroded by inflation, exhausting hours, staffing shortages, and the emotional strain of carrying the system on our backs. To now be told that only a small slice of us are ‘worthy’ of recognition is a betrayal of the reality we all are living through.”

I’d note that none of these controllers are harmed by their colleagues receiving the windfall. They are not seeing their own pay reduced! The reaction strikes me as representing among the worst human tendencies.

One Mile at a Time, though, says that “this creates more ill will than anything, given how hard so many people worked, only to essentially be treated as if they didn’t do anything.”

• He analogizes to loyalty program status fast tracks, which anger elites who earned their status by flying or staying under the normal criteria.
• But in the case of expanding elite ranks there’s a literal direct tradeoff in which members receive upgrades – there’s a limited number of open first class seats and suites. There’s no such direct tradeoff, where one controller receiving a bonus means less money for those who don’t.

Still, in some sense it’s strange to actually do this bonusing now – as opposed to announcing it at the start of the shutdown (or to keep paying controllers consistently during the shutdown). An announcement in advance might have kept more controllers on the job and limited damage to air travel from the government shutdown.

Of course both sides use the disruption in air travel as leverage to force bargaining over the end fo the shutdown! After the fact at most it offers a weak signal that similar bonuses might happen again in a future shutdown – though if politicians don’t sign off on continued pay in advance it’s because they don’t actually want to encourage controllers to show up!

Meanwhile I do want controllers to feel like they can take sick time when they’re not in a position to do their jobs – either mentally or physically. The solution isn’t getting everyone to work, even when truly sick. It’s to grow the pool of controllers – something the FAA has failed to do for decades – and to improve the technology so we aren’t as reliant on individual controllers.

Unfortunately, deferred pay during a government shutdown is part of the job. It’s one reason that the controllers union has, in the past, supported spinning the function off into a stakeholder nonprofit along the NavCanada model.

Not only is NavCanada better run, but they’re able to issue bonds (paid for by airline use charges) rather than relying on Congress to pay for capital investment. They have better tech than we do! And their controllers don’t rely on Congress – or Canada’s parliament – for their paychecks.