US Customs and Border Protection Employee Reviews about "pay"

Pros

Very reasonable pay for the amount of work involved.

Cons

If you work at an airport, you will most likely be opening people's luggage all day

Pros

A lot of work outdoors with minimal supervision. Benefits are pretty good, for now. Usually can get time off if needed.

Cons

Morale is low due to the constant battle over pay. Lack of prosecution of cases due to current administration. No real brotherhood with co-workers.

Pros

Good pay with the overtime; good job security not particularly dangerous for a law enforcement job. Very hard to get fired unless you do something really egregious or illegal; or fail a drug test. Journeyman GS-12.

Cons

Mandatory overtime with no regard for your personal life or family life. You get up to 5 weeks vacation but they steal it from you anyway by forcing you to call in sick to get a day off - so after you burn up your sick leave you use up annual leave then take leave without pay. Frequent payroll errors never in your favor: You have to check your hours worked against your earning and leave statements. They mess them up constantly, making you chase your money.

Pros

The pay is good, but if you work for a big police department its the same salary, benefits are a little better then big local PD ex Miami dade police department or broward sheriffs dept, but not by much. Same goes for job security. Its all a smidge better, but not by a lot. Basically if you work for a big police department your better off there then with working for CBP.

Cons

Management has said during covid we will not receive hazard pay because such occurrences are in our job description. That's how much you are worth to CBP. When covid started CBP claimed officers death due to covid were off duty so that didnt have to pay out the on duty life insurance deaths to the family. CBP has had multiple lawsuits by the NTEU union which represents officers for breaking the contract and NTEU has won almost all of them because CBP continually breaks the contract to save money so that the person in charge can show their superiors how they saved the government money when in the long run it costs the government more money in legal fees, having to pay out any way plus pay interest on the owed money, but by the time that all happens its someone else's problem since the person who committed the contract breaches has already been promoted. You also have to work through government shutdowns which seem to happen multiple times a year now, and wont get paid for the work you did until after the government opens up again so you need to save money just for that. Lastly, every aspect of your job is political, and about gender and race. So moving up is hard for some regardless of their merit.

Pros

Work-life balance is great Provides training Officers have good OT and pay opportunities

Cons

Bureaucracy was stifling. It feels like you have to write a memo to get approval to write the real memo. New approaches to problems, not welcome. Questioning the status quo, not welcome. Professional staff salaries are not that great Slow promotion track

Pros

Benefits are great due to it being a federal position.

Cons

Pay does not match the responsibilities that are given to techs as higher level tasks are given at low pay.

Pros

Good agents who really want to defend our nation work there

Cons

Zero leadership. Chief of the Border Patrol bows to the commissioner of CBP. Constant threats of cutting agents pay. You stress every year because Customs and Border Protection finds another way to demoralize agents by taking a percentage of pay. Agency spends billions on stuff it doesn't need like forward operating bases, which the agents have to man on weeks on end. Frivolous spending on ridiculous agent manned camps that agents are forced to work while simultaneously claiming agents there is no money to pay the agents. Start work here, than move to a professional law enforcement agency