FA’s don’t really get paid a “higher hourly rate”. In the US it’s been a sticking point for decades, especially at smaller airlines, that FA’s qualify pretty easily for food stamps or other public assistance. Also, what isn’t mentioned is that “door closed” doesn’t mean you get paid. The airlines have installed various systems that track when the aircraft actually pushes back and made that the start of the pay clock and not the closing of the door, so everyone can sit at the gate, closed up and ready to go, and not get paid while waiting out a gate hold for whatever reason. There’s lots of little gotchas the airlines make up to not get paid. Pilots IMO are mostly finally getting paid decently after decades of poor pay (again, especially at smaller airlines) but FA’s have been on instant top ramen wages for a long, long time even after years of working for a company.
That’s the management excuse of saying essentially that “we pay them enough to cover the time they are on duty.”
I calculated my “on duty” pay as a pilot for a smaller airline and it was ~$16/hr vs my stated hourly flight (door closed) pay.
For an experiment: Make a pilot rate $50/hr which sounds ok, but a 4 day trip is only 17 hours door closed time which pays $850 before taxes/medical, but the pilot is physically at the airport or on the plane for 37 hours over those 4 days which would be $22/duty hour. Now do the same for a flight attendant earning $21/hr. ~$350 for a 4 day trip, $9.45/duty hour.
So you can see pretty quickly why FA’s are fighting for better pay while on duty.
A big reason why so many flight attendant union protests point out that they can’t even afford to live in the cities the airlines base them to fly from.
There is “per-diem” pay which is supposed to help cover things like food and incidentals while on duty, but it is usually a pittance, $2-4 a duty hour. One $15 airport meal and a $25 dinner on the overnight would wipe out a day’s per-diem and then some, and a reason many crews bring their own food and snacks.
FA’s don’t really get paid a “higher hourly rate”. In the US it’s been a sticking point for decades, especially at smaller airlines, that FA’s qualify pretty easily for food stamps or other public assistance. Also, what isn’t mentioned is that “door closed” doesn’t mean you get paid. The airlines have installed various systems that track when the aircraft actually pushes back and made that the start of the pay clock and not the closing of the door, so everyone can sit at the gate, closed up and ready to go, and not get paid while waiting out a gate hold for whatever reason. There’s lots of little gotchas the airlines make up to not get paid. Pilots IMO are mostly finally getting paid decently after decades of poor pay (again, especially at smaller airlines) but FA’s have been on instant top ramen wages for a long, long time even after years of working for a company.
How are they not starting to get paid when they get to “work” (the airport) and do all the things prior to even passengers getting on board?
That’s the management excuse of saying essentially that “we pay them enough to cover the time they are on duty.”
I calculated my “on duty” pay as a pilot for a smaller airline and it was ~$16/hr vs my stated hourly flight (door closed) pay.
For an experiment: Make a pilot rate $50/hr which sounds ok, but a 4 day trip is only 17 hours door closed time which pays $850 before taxes/medical, but the pilot is physically at the airport or on the plane for 37 hours over those 4 days which would be $22/duty hour. Now do the same for a flight attendant earning $21/hr. ~$350 for a 4 day trip, $9.45/duty hour.
So you can see pretty quickly why FA’s are fighting for better pay while on duty.
A big reason why so many flight attendant union protests point out that they can’t even afford to live in the cities the airlines base them to fly from.
There is “per-diem” pay which is supposed to help cover things like food and incidentals while on duty, but it is usually a pittance, $2-4 a duty hour. One $15 airport meal and a $25 dinner on the overnight would wipe out a day’s per-diem and then some, and a reason many crews bring their own food and snacks.
Is this the same all around the world? I can’t fathom this would be ok from a workers rights perspective in Europe. But thanks for the insight!
No, some places better, but some places are also worse too. Flight attendants almost universally are treated more poorly.