SFO's wheelchair assistance is largely handled by contracted companies like Prospect Airport Services, not by the airlines themselves. That distinction matters. It means these workers exist in a gray zone — technically employed, practically invisible in the airport's sprawling bureaucracy. Pay hovers near minimum wage, and the work is physically demanding. You're on your feet for hours, lifting bags, navigating security lines, and doing it all with a smile because your income depends on passenger generosity.

About that generosity: it's inconsistent at best. One disabled traveler who regularly uses wheelchair assistance at SFO shared a telling perspective: "I tip between 0 and 20 depending on how I'm treated and how much I happen to have." They added that the attendants at SFO have generally been "very kind" — even acting as "bodyguards" at checkpoints when other passengers try to push past. That's a service worker going above and beyond on near-poverty wages.

But another local put the tipping dilemma bluntly: "I don't think people with needs would be expected to tip for basic assistance, especially after they have to basically pay double for everything at the airport." Fair point. When a bottle of water costs $7 at your gate, asking passengers to subsidize a contractor's payroll feels like yet another cost shifted onto consumers.

Here's where our fiscal-responsibility alarm goes off. SFO is a public airport generating billions in economic activity. The city collects concession fees, landing fees, and tax revenue from every corner of those terminals. So why are essential accessibility workers — people literally required by federal law to exist — employed through low-bid contractors with wages that aren't livable within 50 miles of the airport?

This isn't a call for some bloated new city program. It's simpler than that: SFO could require contractors to meet a genuine living-wage floor as a condition of their operating agreements. The airport already sets standards for everything from food vendors to janitorial services. Treating wheelchair agents as an afterthought isn't just a bad look — it's a policy choice that quietly shifts costs onto disabled travelers and underpaid workers alike.

Accountability starts with transparency. What are these contracts actually paying? San Franciscans deserve to know.