Six Stationary Engineers, $84K Each: Aviation's Per-Person Overtime Story

Aviation has recovered well beyond its COVID staffing trough. The department grew from 680 employees in 2022 to 1,063 in 2025, adding 534 workers in 2024 and 2025 alone. The chart above shows what happened next: overtime did not fall as staffing recovered. It reached a record $4.19 million in Q1 2026.

The new hires were concentrated in custodial and general labor roles, while the specialized maintenance and 24/7 operational jobs driving overtime remained thinly staffed. Aviation added people, but not enough of the people who could cover those shifts.

The Headcount Boom That Didn't Fix OT

The numbers look like a success story on the surface. From the COVID trough in 2022 — when Aviation had just 680 employees — the department grew to 1,063 workers by 2025. That's a 56% increase in three years. In 2024 alone, the department added 242 new workers to its payroll. In 2025, it added another 292.

But overtime tells a different story. As headcount climbed, total overtime climbed faster. Q4 2022 saw $2.16 million in OT across 614 employees. By Q4 2025, that figure reached $3.35 million — a 55% increase — with 934 employees on payroll. And Q1 2026 blew past everything: $4.19 million in a single quarter, the highest single-quarter OT total on record for the department.

The Wrong Jobs

The disconnect becomes clear when you look at overtime by worker cohort. Employees first appearing in Aviation's payroll in 2024 or 2025 averaged about $4,200 in annual overtime.

The existing workforce averaged $15,800 in overtime per person — nearly four times more. The hiring solved a different problem than the one driving costs. Custodial workers don't troubleshoot failed HVAC systems overnight. They don't maintain the boiler operations that keep the terminals climate-controlled year-round. Those jobs require a different labor category entirely.

The Stationary Engineer Problem

Six people. Stationary Engineers at Philadelphia International Airport. In 2024 and 2025 combined, they generated $1.02 million in overtime. That is $170,000 per person, on top of their base salary — in a two-year period.

These are the workers who maintain the airport's mechanical infrastructure: the HVAC systems, boilers, air handling units, and refrigeration equipment that keeps an around-the-clock operation running in all weather conditions. The airport cannot shut down for maintenance. There is no slow season where fewer planes land. Someone has to be there, at all hours, keeping the systems operational.

The city has been unable to hire enough Stationary Engineers to staff those shifts properly. Rather than solve the staffing gap, it has leaned on the same small group of people — paying them overtime to cover the shifts that no one else is trained to handle.

The comparison is stark. Across 2024 and 2025, the six employees titled Stationary Engineer averaged $83,555 in overtime per person per year. The 282 employees titled Custodial Worker 2 averaged $7,393. That is an 11.3-to-1 gap.

Headcount Grew. OT Per Employee Grew Faster.

The hiring push added 383 workers from the 2022 trough to the end of 2025. During that same period, overtime per employee rose 76% — from $2,591 per person in Q1 2022 to $4,553 in Q1 2026. More headcount did not reduce overtime demand. The two variables moved in the same direction.

This is the signature of a specialized staffing gap, not a general understaffing problem. The department's net headcount grew by 383 workers from 2022 through 2025, but the six Stationary Engineers still averaged $83,555 each in annual overtime during 2024 and 2025. Aviation grew overall without eliminating the concentration in this specific title.

Overtime Is Eating Payroll

In Q1 2026, overtime represented 23% of total Aviation compensation. The department was simultaneously paying a larger workforce and paying overtime at a record quarterly level. The cost compounding is straightforward: bigger headcount means bigger base payroll, and the OT on top of that compounds the budget pressure.

Q1 2026 OT was up 46% year-over-year, while headcount grew 13% over the same period. The overtime growth rate is more than three times the headcount growth rate. That gap is not sustainable and it is not recoverable through general hiring.

A Department-Level Problem, Not Just an Aviation Problem

Aviation is not alone in this pattern. The City's Fleet Management and Water departments show similar dynamics — overtime rising alongside headcount, the workforce growing while specialized roles remain underfilled. The cause is structural: civil service hiring processes, pay compression in technical roles, and a contracting competitive landscape for licensed maintenance tradespeople.

But the Stationary Engineer concentration is uniquely Aviation. PHL runs continuously. The mechanical systems that serve an airport terminal cannot be scheduled around a standard workweek. When the city cannot recruit Stationary Engineers at the pay band the role is classified at, it falls back on paying the same people to work extended shifts indefinitely. There is no seasonal pipeline for that labor category.

What Would Actually Fix This

The solutions are not complicated. They are just not the ones the current hiring push has pursued.

• Targeted hiring for Stationary Engineer roles. The city needs to post, recruit, and hire for these specific positions — not just add custodial workers and call it a staffing solution. That means updating job postings, engaging with trade schools, and running active recruitment rather than waiting for applications.
• Pay compression review. If the city cannot attract Stationary Engineers at the current classification and pay band, the pay band needs to be updated. The $83,555 in average annual overtime per Stationary Engineer during 2024 and 2025 is effectively a subsidy for a broken compensation structure — it just flows through overtime instead of base pay.
• Contract services for HVAC maintenance. For a continuously operating critical-infrastructure site, contracting out specialized HVAC maintenance is a reasonable alternative to trying to rebuild an understaffed internal team. The city does this in other departments. It should be on the table here.

The department added 534 workers. Overtime hit a record high. That is the clearest possible signal that the hiring was solving the wrong problem.