Brand new flight attendants based in high cost destinations are sometimes eligible for food stamps if they have no other income, and as their wages have been eroded by inflation. That will be solved by new contracts on the table, currently being offered to them by airlines.
Despite reasonably high hourly rates, flight attendants may be paid for just 70 to 75 hours per month. And that leads to low total incomes until they reach higher levels of seniority or where they’re paid for positions in union leadership (at American Airlines, the deal agreed to with flight attendants to support being taken over by US Airways included a bump in trip removal hours to 110 for union officers, which some cabin crew viewed as a payoff).
In addition to United, American and Southwest, cabin crew at Alaska Airlines are currently in contentious negotiations. The longer those negotiations take, the longer crew receive low wages saving the company money. Because unlike pilots, they aren’t likely to get retro pay back to when their contract became amendable.
- The lowest wages are earned by the newest flight attendants
- This structure is something unions have bargained for over decades and multiple contracts
- Low wages to start, and higher wages as seniority grows, is something that benefits more senior crewmembers. The airline ultimately doesn’t care nearly as much about how the cost of flight attendants is distributed across flight attendants.
Though the union itself is responsible for low starting wages, AFA-CWA union head Sara Nelson says that it’s actually… sexism.
AFA's Sara Nelson: the lack of a living wage for new flight attendants represents “the last vestiges of the sexism in the industry” from the days when flight stewardesses weren't expected to be independent.
Alaska is “going to need to go significantly higher to make this work.”
— Dominic Gates (@dominicgates) December 23, 2023
Aviation certainly has a sexist past, but it seems like Ms. Nelson is one of the last vestiges of sexism, failing to realize that increasingly she represents male flight attendants as well. Or its her own sexism that has led her union to bargain for disparate wages based on seniority.
However sexism, conscious or unconscious bias causing executives to fail to realize the value that crew are adding and therefore paying them less, is… not the reason why wages are at the level that they are.
Sara Nelson complains that Alaska’s offer to flight attendants gives them raises which are only slightly above inflation. Of course flight attendant jobs won’t ever be lucrative in part because the role never becomes more productive, in a capital-intensive low margin industry.
And unlike high profile union victories in other industries, airlines can’t pay a subset of workers higher wages by reducing the number of workers in the high paying classification. The number of flight attendants required on an aircraft is set at a minimum by the FAA. Flight attendants are fairly paid for what they do, with wages on offer to adjust up for inflation and industry parity.
Wages aren’t as high as pilots because training isn’t as significant and they are easier to replace. There is a long line of people waiting to become flight attendants even at current wages. Airlines often highlight that they are ‘more selective than Harvard’ in terms of the percentage of people they accept into flight attendant training classes (although they aren’t necessarily good at selection).
Nelson has argued that flight attendants should be armed with tasers to use on passengers; that alcohol should be banned from aircraft; that leisure travel should have been illegal during the pandemic; and that masks on planes should have remained in place longer. She’s one of the few people I consider to be wrong on almost everything.
(HT: @DaneCreekPhoto)
Gary , Excellent Article . Re-reading , it has caused me to re-think my support for the FA unions .
My empathy with , and sympathy for , the many FAs I have known , may have blinded me to the absurdities of the “Political” unions .
How can there be sexism if there are no sexes?
The last paragraph is wrong
The pandemic is ongoing. Vaccination rates are extremely low, like 18% for the current vaccine (not the outdated formula) and nobody wears masks.
If you are not a Trumper, why are you not masked and vaccinated?
If you are a Trumper, copy him and get your fall 2023 vaccine and not be like the dangerous 82%-ers.
@derek – the ‘pandemic phase’ of the virus is over, according to the US government and the World Health Organization. While I think that boosters are beneficial for many, it’s an absolute shame that they were clearly based on what was becoming an outdated strain of the virus while not accelerating work on better technologies such as intranasal approaches. They’ve taken too long because we stopped caring.
@Gary
The pandemic continues. What has happened is that politicians have declared the health emergency over (Biden and WHO).
The fact is that most people are acting dangerously. Their vaccination status means they have little immunity (only 18% vaccinated with the current vaccine) and most people in the US are bare faced. Even when sick, few take Paxlovid.
That is like unprotected sex with a drug addicted prostitute.
The smart thing is to get the current vaccine. If one last vaccinated in 2021 or 2022, that is garbage. Why not wear a mask in crowded airports, particularly if you’re not trying to land a date. Who cares how you look? Are you wearing a suit or tight dress to impress?
By the way, Sara Nelson is full of it
FAs should get nearly full pay upon hiring and senior FAs should get a pay cut. Seniority doesn’t improve service much. Medicare doesn’t pay older doctors more. Food stamp rates are not higher as you get a year older
Gary,
You really do hate unions, don’t you. You always bash union leadership. “Wages aren’t as high as pilots because training isn’t as significant, and they are easier to replace.” That would explain every union job out there if it were true be it a UAW or a IAM job. Union shops are sought after to work at because pay and benefits are better than average everywhere else, and it isn’t a valid excuse to say that unions are accepting lower wages, nor why lower pay for lower seniority. You obviously don’t understand the railway labor act.
One thing is certain, pilots set the overall tone for raises, pay rates, benefits, and work rules. They set the pattern for the other crafts. Some might argue that the pie is only so big and they get the largest share. But none of that matters without flight attendants. Try flying without them. Its not about the fact that they are easily replaceable. There is training involved, and that costs money. So, it’s not like the airlines are allowing for high attrition as you seem to be suggesting. They bargain hard, as do the unions. But the unions aren’t simply accepting lower wages. The railway labor act doesn’t allow them to simply go on strike when the contract becomes amendable. there is a process. If the FA’s push it to the limit, they may have to accept a Presidental Labor Board proposal instead of a voluntarily negotiated agreement. Or, they may actually go on strike and force something better, which is the direction they need to go looking at airline profits these days.
So, take your anti-union mantra and push it into the ocean. Go union.
She neglected to include racist, homophobic, and transphobic. I guess she needs something to up the ante later on. Nelson is just another one of the weak, feeble minds running our institutions.
@Union this – there used to be a union wage premium, about 15%, but that has largely disappeared over the past few decades.
I have no beef with unions as such. While I think APFA is weak and not super helpful to their members, I don’t think I’d want to be a flight attendant at American Airlines without one. Flight attendants haven’t needed one at Delta, but they haven’t been harmful at Southwest.
Following the data and the specific circumstance.
@Union this:
> and it isn’t a valid excuse to say that unions are accepting lower wages, nor why lower pay for lower seniority. You obviously don’t understand the railway labor act.
He’s observing reality. Union positions have low starting pay and high senior pay. This is a deliberate measure to trap workers into staying with that employer and deny them the best tool a worker has for raising their income: changing jobs. Thus the union becomes the only way to raise their pay. It’s the union itself that’s the primary beneficiary of this, not the workers.
@Union this … You are correct in writing : ” … they may actually go on strike and force something better , which is the direction they need to go looking at airline profits these days.” However , Gary quotes the union leadership ‘barking back’ political slogans from the Dems. which have nothing to do with obtaining a fair wage . I am therefore More For FA higher wages and working conditions , and less entrenching political Dem. political slogans from the union leadership . Perhaps the FAs ought to do a ‘wildcat strike’ and force the airline ‘boss suits’ into submission , without the so-called union ‘leadership’ .
It is not necessarily the per hour rates of the lowest rung flight attendants that is the problem. The ability to get hours without racking up a lot of unpaid hours is also part of the problem. Holding the pay rates to inflation while giving both full rate boarding pay and exiting pay (while actually doing some work) would go a long way to bring up the hours for the lowest rung flight attendants as long as those hours are reflected by an increase in the minimum monthly hours.
Alert – your woke is showing. The talking Coke machines know the pay rates. They chose the job. They need to stop whining.
Unions are scum.
Leff – you’re still not an MD. Stay in your lane.
Union this – not as much as I do. Unions are scum.
It’s difficult to believe that people like derek exist and harbor those views. I’m hoping he’s writing those comments with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek. Otherwise, he needs some serious help and fast.
James N – <——- found the problem.
jesus…..this idiotic job, read talking coke machine, was never meant to be a career. And US carriers are horrible. Most stewardess’ are fat and rude. We are definitely not talking Singapore Airlines quality.
And Sarah can yelp all she wants about sexism, ageism, racism, and wokeism….whatever. Until these the US carrier clowns demonstrate some better customer service and a modicum of standards wrt appearance, passengers will never respect you.
That being said, Sarah is a decent looking piece, for an old lady.
Sara Nelson saying something stupid.
Must be a day that ends in Y.
It said Sara Nelson.
I stopped reading, made the sign of the cross and went to find some protective garlic
Flight attendants traditionally got into the profession to travel the world, it was a glamorous profession!
” Flight attendants are fairly paid for what they do” – If they’re based in a very low cost location then yes. Conversely if they’re based in a high cost location and lack seniority, they’re screwed.
As to Nelson, she’s just an embarrassment. I can only guess that for some reason the other options to lead the union were somehow even worse. Capable leadership would be amazing but sane leadership would still be an improvement.
Sara Nelson is from Oregon… Not surprised. I’m guessing she’s a bit hurt after coming a little too friendly with the pilots and loves how her FA seniority can maintain her elevation against her competition that is much younger entering the industry. As it’s long been known that the enemy of junior FAs isn’t the evil corporate leadership but the senior FA leadership!
One could be concerned that Sara Nelson has forgotten how many male FA’s there are with her sexism rant OR is she claiming that trained qualified women pilots are also facing sexism!?!?
Asking for a friend.
Flight Attendant unions are entirely useless. When push comes to shove, they will always cave to the Airline. The attitude is you don’t like your job; ten people are waiting for yours. Unfortunately, there is still this feeling of being an FA being about seeing the world, well, not so much anymore. Those days with long layovers are long gone. Now it’s fly for as long as allowed, go to the hotel that is usually under construction, so the rooms are cheaper. At least that is AS’s ammo. Max pay for a > 30-year FA is a bit over $60K. It might have been okay 20 years ago, but not these days. There was an article a few years ago about someone taking pictures of FAs getting food stamps in uniforms. They got admonished. Yes, if you start, say hello to 5 roommates, eating leftover food from the aircraft because you can’t afford anything. It’s a shitty job, and therefore, the new FAs are not performing as they did years ago; thus, usually, flying is a pain in the…
It’s all just posturing to advance their interests. Just like when AA reduced AUS service because it wasn’t working, but blamed labor.
Of course View From the Right Wing buys it when a big corporation does it, and challenges it when a union does it.
She’s playing a game and seeing what sticks. Just like everyone else does.
This obsession with flight attendants is just creepy. It’s like listening to a bunch of mean girls gossip but wait, you all are supposedly grown men. The contempt here is palpable but in that guy Walter it borders on the psychopathic. He should get help.