Astronauts Will Not Get Overtime Pay for the Nine Months Spent Stranded in Space

Some people expect to get a little extra cash if they get a stay at work late. But does that same logic apply to master astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who you might’ve heard were stuck in the International Space Station for an extra nine months beyond the conclusion of their mission?

Nope. The New York Times asked that question to a NASA spokesperson named Jimi Russell. Via email Russell replied, “While in space, NASA astronauts are on the travel orders as federal employees.”

Essentially, if someone from the EPA has to travel from D.C. to, let’s say, the neighboring state of Delaware, they would be getting paid about the same as an astronaut who was stuck in space for nine months after a spacecraft malfunction.

Astronauts Stranded In Space For Nine Months Will Not Get Overtime Pay

Astronauts are just federal employees on a business trip. Yes, that business trip is to motherfucking space so they can perform kickass science experiments while floating in zero-G in a science base that floats above the fucking earth like something out of a goddamn comic book.

But functionally, they’re just another federal employee. Astronauts on the ISS do not get overtime, nor do they get extra pay for working holidays or weekends.

The trade-off is that they do get their expenses covered. Granted, a federal employee traveling from one state to another has the option of having their dinner at Applebee’s covered.

There are no Applebees in space, unfortunately. Or maybe, fortunately. But astronauts do get on a daily allowance for incidentals. They get a whole five dollars per day. They could feast off of the Wendy’s value menu with that.

If you factor in this five-dollar per diem, Williams and Wilmore each earned an additional $1,430 for spending an additional 286 days in space. That’s on top of their base salary which is around $150,000.

Sounds to me like astronauts are grossly underpaid, especially considering the physical toll living in zero-G takes on your body. These people come back to Earth with less muscle and bone mass than they had when they left. If your job took away some of your bones, I think you ask for a raise at the very least.