The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport recently earned an unwelcome distinction — wait times to get through security are among the longest in the nation.

It took MSP travelers 46 minutes Monday to clear security — the longest wait in the country — exceeding notoriously slow airports like New York’s LaGuardia and Atlanta.

The Transportation Security Administration has been keeping tabs on wait times as the partial federal shutdown continues. Early on, the Twin Cities airport had waits similar to the rest of the nation’s largest airports.

But as the shutdown drags on, a lack of a paycheck for TSA workers appears to have had an impact. Wait times have grown substantially.

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On Jan. 14, the average wait time for regular travelers was 20 minutes at the local airport. On Saturday, Jan. 19, it had grown to 41 minutes, the longest average wait in the nation. And on Monday it was 46 minutes.

Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the airport, said a combination of “a slight uptick in absenteeism” among TSA agents, challenges hiring security screeners in a competitive job market and a busy holiday travel weekend all drove up wait times.

“We have worked with airlines and our other airport partners at MSP to come up with a variety of contingency plans depending on the situation,” Hogan said. “The bottom line, though, is that by law, only TSA officials can screen passengers, so there are limits to what we can do to help.”

TSA agents have been working without pay since the shutdown began and the agency has seen the number of unscheduled absences jump. Nationally, it was 7.5 percent on Monday, compared with 3.3 percent a year ago.

The Twin Cities airport held a job fair last weekend to fill about 30 to 40 open TSA security positions. The airport has a staff of about 600 TSA workers who typically screen about 34,000 people per day.

About 800,000 federal workers have either been furloughed or are working without paychecks since the shutdown began on Dec. 22. That includes about 6,000 in Minnesota.

U.S. Sen. Tina Smith visited the airport Jan. 11 to draw attention to federal workers’ plight. She heard from Celia Hahn, a TSA worker and union leader, who told the Democratic senator that airport security agents are among the lowest paid government workers in the country and missing a paycheck can be devastating.

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Smith noted Tuesday that TSA workers continued to show up for work even though they have no idea when they will be paid again.

“If that’s not the definition of public service, I don’t know what is,” Smith said. “This is America; people are not expected to work and not get paid.”