A complex story from The Washington Post paints a grim picture of junior flight attendants struggling to survive. So why then is there seemingly endless demand to fill every flight attendant position? This disequilibrium means there will never be a true “fix” to this problem.
Flight Attendants Knowlingly Take On Homelessness And Hunger…Why?
To be clear from the outset, I think flight attendants should earn a living wage and enjoy pay raises commensurate with inflation. Furthermore, I believe that companies should be severely penalized via punitive taxes if their employees are paid so little that they are forced to seek public assistance. No company should transfer its social obligation onto taxpayers.
We learn about Kay, who is a junior flight attendant for Frontier Airlines and also drives for Lyft to make ends meet. Junior flight attendants tend to be on “reserve” meaning that rather than know the routes they are flying in advance, they will fill in for other flight attendants who call in sick at the last minute. That makes planning and life outside work tougher, but that’s the “way of the road” for junior flight attendants.
Kay describes driving since 4:00 am Lyft to make some extra bucks only to be called in unexpectedly to work…think of the safety concerns of a flight attendant (“we’re primarily here for your safety”) coming into to work after already working a full shift driving…
Kay complains:
“I have to supplement my income. But then I’m also not sleeping. We’re expected to save people on the plane … and we’re not getting paid a living wage.”
Sorry, but maybe you just don’t work for a company that isn’t paying you enough? I would not take a job if the starting salary was too low…so why are flight attendants? Wouldn’t you know that the wages you earn cannot support your basic needs in cities like Boston, New York, or Los Angeles?
The answer is two-fold. First, if they just stick it out for a few years, they are paid a much better wage. Flight attendant wages tend to rise twice per year (as their seniority grows) and cap out at 12 years of service. So a flight attendant who works 12 years or 50 years is making the same base salary, which is far above a living wage.
Second, flight attendants are hopeful that after up to a decade of stalled wages, new contracts will begin to lift the starting pay for junior flight attendants and also add boarding pay, which would disproportionally help junior flight attendants (who tend to work more shorter flights than fewer longer ones, which more senior flight attendants prefer).
My frustration over these complaints is not at all animus against flight attendants or the desire to make enough to live on…but there is no shortage of flight attendants. There never has been one. Every time there is an opening or a job fair, airlines get more applications per available slot than Harvard and Yale get for their available slots.
> Read More: Admission to Harvard is Easier than Becoming a Delta FA
If there are tens of thousands of folks lining up to take a job at $25,000/year with miserable working conditions, why should the airline offer more…?
It seems to me that the only people to blame for taking such low-wage jobs are the people who continue to take those jobs…maybe instead of taking those jobs and immediately complaining about how poorly you are paid, you should just look for a different job?
image: Instagram / xoblondevoyage
this is yet another failure of the flight attendants union…why not fight to increase wages in yrs 1-4 (or whenver a true living wage kicks in), flatten it out in the next few years and gently increase it again till year 12. That way you earn the same total salary yrs 1-12 but aren’t literally having to work a second job for the first few years…
Of course we all know the union will never do this, because they aren’t there for the benefit of all flight attendants, rather just the cabal of sr flight attendants that run the union and milk thier jr colleagues in every way they can.
+1
If the female is footloose free , and wants to get around , there are only two jobs I can think of : Air Force enlisted woman , or FA . The serious one with grey matter upstairs might wish to become an air traffic controller in the Air Force , no ? That would translate to a civilian job with the FAA , no ?
I’ve got 2 letters for them…….OF
The recruitment interview should focus on the reality of the job. (apparently many excited applicants are quick to ignore). The demands of relocation away from friends and family, working holidays and weekends, and early financial hardship need to be emphasized
A position of flight attendant is not a glamorous one.
“It seems to me that the only people to blame for taking such low-wage jobs are the people who continue to take those jobs…maybe instead of taking those jobs and immediately complaining about how poorly you are paid, you should just look for a different job?”
I’m not really sure that the victim blaming is the way to go here. Some people sign up to be a FA without realizing that they might be assigned to work in New York or some other insanely expensive city. If they’re starting in Huntsville then that’s quite an unexpected shock. Then there’s the (generally youthful) ambition to just stick it out for a few years until they can make some remotely reasonable wage. I blame the company for these, not the applicants who want the “glamour” of travel.
So the people working in poultry plants in the USA doing jobs almost no U.S. citizen will do should just quit because the job sucks? Same premise. Sometimes people get a job and it’s awful but they’re not equipped to switch jobs.
I tend to think that people realize what they are signing up for.
This is not like those who began 10 years ago and never got a raise…new hires new the rate they agreed to. I don’t want people working for me who come in already greedy and expecting more. Don’t like what I am willing to pay, don’t work for me.
Friends are recruiters for a few airlines and they *really* make it clear what the 1st year looks like, its not good at all – no matter *which* airline you sign up with. But the perks of a new city every day (or a few..), overnights in some cool, far off destinations is a driver for many who are perfectly happy being stuck in a tin can for 12 hours with 150 different types of people & attitudes.
Many new FAs tend to take the first offer they get instead of really thinking it out.
Frontier, for example, changed their flight patterns this year to do only out & backs. While this saves the airline tens of thousands each day on hotels, it also means the crews can be HOME every night. As long as that HOME is in base or near a base, like it is for all my Frontier friends. Compare that to my Alaska friends, who are away from home/base for 2-3 days at a time….
Know who else is “on the verge” of hunger and homeless?….people who work at:
McDonald’s
Walmart
7-Eleven (and just about any convenience store)
Wawa (and just about any other gas station)
Target
Stadium concession workers
Parking lot attendants
Aircraft cleaning contractors
Airport wheelchair pushers
Movie theater workers
And a TON of other occupations.
The attraction is the TRAVEL BENEFITS. If the pay and benefits don’t add up to something that’s worthwhile to you, then DON’T DO IT.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
Oh I don’t know maybe because they genuinely have a passion for the job and they understand the job gets better over time plus obviously the travel benefits? You shouldn’t be telling them to apply for other jobs and excusing companies like your beloved United when they don’t pay flight attendants from the moment they sign into work and pay them 2K or less a month yet assign them to bases like San Francisco or Boston. If flight attendants don’t advocate for change then things will never actually change and it will be an endless cycle.
They need to be called out because clearly United has the money if they made nearly as much as Delta yet pay their flight attendants substantially less.Whats the valid excuse for this? Oh yeah there isn’t one besides corporate greed that will be put on blast with the upcoming strike vote.I bet you UA will be listening up soon enough
Why did unions every accept such disparate wages for junior and senior flight attendants? Why did they not fight for boarding pay decades ago?
I think using the term greed is a bit unfair when there are so many people who want these jobs, which does push wages down. That’s the way semi-market-based economies work.
Do senior FAs have disproportionate voting power in unions? Why don’t junior FAs advocate for flattening of the curve so they make a little more in their first few years?
I’ve long advocated for that.
I mean fine, but if they are so essential for safety, shouldn’t they be paid a living wage where they don’t have to do other jobs to supplement their income? $25k is not that in most cities with a crew base.