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TAMPA, Fla. โ Itโs the busiest travel day of the season and airport workers are putting in overtime to make sure people can get home for the holidays.
โThere will be a bunch of wheelchairs, feels like Iโm working by myself sometimes, and Iโm like doubling back, tripling back,โ said Tampa airport contractor Anthony Sanders.
Tampa International Airport (TPA) expects 65-75,000 passengers to pass through each day during this holiday season, breaking pre-pandemic travel records. Thatโs just thousands of the 110 million people AAA predicts will travel across the U.S.
In fact, the airport is seeing passenger numbers 8-9% higher than the average of other airports across the country.
But when you look around, you see a lot of staff like Sanders working during the holidays.
Airlines took a hit during the pandemic and as people began traveling again, airports in general still havenโt been able to fully re-staff.
Sanders is a Tampa resident who is contracted by a company outside of TPA to assist elderly and handicapped passengers in wheelchairs. He was laid off for three months during the pandemic and with the cost of living in Tampa, he was facing homelessness, living out of hotels.
Now that heโs been back to work, heโs working overtime for the holidays โ six days a week, eight or more hours a day and his pay is $6.98 an hour, so he relies on tips.
The minimum wage in Florida is $10 an hour, so similar to a restaurant employee, tips get him to the legal minimum wage.
โWhen I got rehired I mean, it was still like, you know, it wasnโt as busy as it is now. It was still like I wouldnโt you know, โcause I rely on my tip money and I wasnโt really โ I was probably making maybe $30 a day in tips, and then, you know, we have to report our tips,โ Sanders explained. โWe werenโt making any money. I slept in hotels. It was very hard, very hard.โ
Sanders will be working Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years, and his birthday on January 2.
โWeโre very short, weโre very understaffed, and we, you know, we do our best. I do my best. Every time Iโm here, I do my best to assist people, I go beyond and above for the people here and they do, they do you know, they do appreciate you back,โ Sanders said.
He is also part of SEIU 32BJ, a union advocating for airport workers to get higher wages and safer working conditions.
If youโre one of the millions of people flying this holiday season, remember two things: get there early and workers like Sanders, who rely on tips.
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