The world’s richest man offers to cover the salaries of 50,000 TSA airport workers, who haven’t been paid since a partial government shutdown began in February.
Billionaire Elon Musk is volunteering to pick up the paychecks of the Transportation Security Administration’s 50,000 airport officers, who have been working without pay for the past five weeks in the wake of the latest government shutdown.
“I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk said in a Saturday morning post on his social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter.
If he follows through, the world’s richest man would foot the bill for at least two full pay periods for security screeners and other TSA personnel who earn an average of $61,000 a year.
Musk did not elaborate on his plan.
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A partial government shutdown last fall ended in February when Democrats in Congress agreed to fund most of the government in exchange for withholding funds from the Department of Homeland Security following the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by ICE agents.
The latest shutdown began February 14.
TSA personnel have been working without pay since then. Some airports have been accepting donations and staging food drives to help the unpaid workers, many of whom have been calling in sick rather than working for free.
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