Fresh attendants on American Airlines receive surprisingly low salary.
Reddit is abuzz with a leaked employment verification letter by American Airlines for new flight attendants, highlighting their low pay. In this letter, American Airlines tells potential landlords or places offering services where income verification is needed that a new flight attendant is expected to receive an annual salary of "approximately $27,315 before incentives and taxes." It ends with a humble request: "Any courtesy you can provide would be appreciated."
The Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) confirmed the letter's authenticity. This union represents about 28,000 flight attendants at American Airlines. The company didn't respond to CNN's request for comment.
In spite of recent inflation moderation, this revelation reveals how struggling Americans still need greater financial assistance, despite the headlines showing a robust economy and a bustling job market.
This $27,315 salary exceeds the federal poverty line ($15,060 for a single person) but doesn't reflect regional variance in living costs – a significant factor in expensive metropolitan areas. For instance, in Massachusetts, anyone earning below $30,120 annually is eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
The APFA claimed that the large gap between flight attendants' low wages and top airline executives' salaries is indicative of corporate greed. The starting salary for a new flight attendant at American Airlines is $27,000. In comparison, in 2023, Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airlines, earned $31.4 million, a staggering 1,162 times more than a fresh flight attendant.
"We have flight attendants who are sleeping in their cars," APFA's Communications Director Paul Hartshorn informed CNN.
Since 2019, there's been no pay rise for flight attendants at American Airlines. The union is aggressively seeking a new contract to address this issue. Simultaneously, flight attendants at United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and other airlines are pursuing new contracts, aiming to boost salaries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average annual salary for flight attendants in 2023 was $71,000.
While being a flight attendant is a full-time job, attendants earn about 75 hours of salary per month; payment only starts when the plane's door shuts. They do not receive compensation for the hours they spend at the airport or runway during boarding and deplaning.
APFA is pushing for a 33% hourly pay increase, reaching $91 per hour during the first year of a new contract. In addition, they're demanding beyond-wage increases of 5%, 4%, and 4% in the subsequent years of a four-year agreement. Moreover, they're seeking full retroactive pay raises, based on the number of hours attended during five years of negotiations.
Under federal law, flight attendants are legally required to continue working without strike authorization. The Railway Labor Act rules oblige union members at airlines, and a few other designated industries, to remain on the job. Federal mediators must first declare an impasse before they can strike.
Despite legal constraints, the union appeals to President Joe Biden and Congress for authorization to pursue a potential strike. The National Mediation Board, a federal agency overseeing labor-management relations in the US railroad and airline industries, would have the power to grant this permission.
"American Airlines is unlikely to come up with an economically fitting proposal till we have the threat of a strike," Hartshorn said. "Federal authorities need the strike threat to persuade them to move towards our desired direction."
Southwest Airlines' flight attendants ratified a new contract in June, which brought wage hikes exceeding 33% over four years.
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The low salary for new flight attendants at American Airlines, as revealed in the leaked employment verification letter, has sparked concerns about the financial struggles of working Americans, even with a robust economy and job market. This meager salary of $27,315 also falls short of fully covering living costs in expensive metropolitan areas, necessitating additional financial assistance.
In light of this wage discrepancy, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) has accused American Airlines of corporate greed and highlighted the enormous gap between flight attendants' salaries and top executives' pay, such as CEO Robert Isom's $31.4 million in 2023.
Source: edition.cnn.com
