Delta Air Lines has announced it’s boosting pay for nonunion flight attendants and ground workers after recording strong first-quarter earnings and smashing Wall Street’s expectations.
Atlanta-based Delta — the most profitable U.S. carrier — said it would raise the minimum wage for employees to $19 per hour and provide workers with a 5% pay raise, which tops out at $79.80. The increases go into effect on June 1 and benefit more than 80,000 workers. “Delta’s leading position comes thanks to a simple concept that dates back nearly a century – invest in our people first, and they will deliver great service and experiences for our customers,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a memo to employees Monday and shared by the company online.
Delta said the company has raised pay among major work groups by between 20 and 25% since 2022, including base pay increases and profit-sharing.
In February, Delta paid out $1.4 billion to its more than 100,000 employees in profit-sharing; that represented a 146% increase from the profit-sharing payment of a year earlier. Delta posted $4.6 billion in profit last year, or more than 4 of its competitors — Southwest, Alaska, United, and American Airlines — combined.
Just 20% of Delta’s workforce is unionized, well below its main rivals. The company’s more than 18,000 pilots are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, while most remaining employees are nonunion.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) — which most recently reached a tentative deal with Southwest Airlines to cover their 20,000 flight attendants — has fallen short in several unionization attempts, and union membership among Americans has declined overall. But the union hasn’t given up.
“Management knows we’re waking up to what we can achieve when we organize our union,” the AFA said in a statement Monday. “They’re doing everything in their power to satisfy us with crumbs. But we know our worth.”