New flight attendants—faced with low starting wages, long days with relatively fewer payable hours, and no opportunity to renegotiate wages on their contacts since 2019, even while inflation has been steadily rising—need to weather a lot of turbulence en route to a financially stable career path.
An employment verification letter from American Airlines is circulating on Reddit and collecting attention because of how low starting wages are for some newly hired flight attendants. The letter, which states that a new American Airlines flight attendant will have a projected annual salary of $27,315 before incentives and taxes are collected, has sparked conversations about fair wages for flight attendants and how inflationary price hikes are making life unaffordable for many Americans—even if the economy and labor markets look good on paper.
