Same could be said about the Agents working Obama’s numerous vacations and golf outings.
Via BuzzFeed:
A cap on federal income has prevented United States Secret Service agents from being paid for hundreds of hours of work on the presidential campaign trail, leaving many agents working overtime for free since as early as spring 2016 during what has been a historically demanding election year for the agency.
The Secret Service is one of the only agencies in the government that routinely pays overtime. But the payments are part of a byzantine structure wherein agents can run up against caps on overtime per pay period or annually — as well a yearly federal cap of $160,300 that limits an agent’s salary and overtime combined.
It’s the annual federal cap, officials say, that has posed a problem during this year’s election and become a subject of great ire and frustration inside the agency.
When overtime drives an agent’s aggregate income past the $160,300 limit — no matter how early in the year — that agent may no longer earn paid overtime, even as they regularly work long past a 50-hour week, traveling around the clock with the candidates, their families, the Obamas, the Bidens, and the press.
Ask any agent on the campaign trail when they “maxed out” during the course of the year — or hit the federal limit — and they will be ready with an answer: May, April, March, or, for some of the most senior agents in the field, even earlier.
The result? Hundreds of agents working months of overtime for which they will never be paid.
“It’s been an incredible sacrifice,” Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy told USA Today of the demands on agents this year. (Clancy has no power over the federal salary limit, but did waive a $35,000 cap restricting overtime specifically. The measure did not affect maxed-out agents, but did draw attention the high demands of the election year.)[…]
This election, Paramore said, has been different.
The reason is twofold. First, a hiring freeze about two years ago limited the number of active agents, requiring more work from more people in the field. Second, and most problematic, is the unusual demands of the election year, with an outgoing president and vice president requiring protection along with the candidates, coupled with high-profile events like the conventions and United Nations General Assembly.
The agency was nearly as strapped last year, staffing a September visit from the pope and assigning details in November to Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump, in addition to protection for Bill and Hillary Clinton and eventually Chelsea Clinton.