Mitch Schnurman, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram’s business columnist, notes that low-cost airline leader Southwest Airlines is now one of the industry leaders in pilot and flight attendant compensation:

Southwest employees are also paid some of the highest salaries in the business, with pilots and flight attendants at the top of the scale.
An experienced pilot at Southwest, for example, earns 45 percent more than his counterpart at United and almost 18 percent more than at American Airlines.
It wasn’t always that way. Three years ago, Southwest pilots were paid at least 20 percent less than pilots at legacy carriers. They usually made up the difference, and then some, from Southwest’s profit sharing and stock options.
Then the competition began restructuring after losing tens of billions of dollars. Companies shrank, went bankrupt and cut jobs, pay and benefits. Southwest, meanwhile, continued to grow, and workers received small, steady increases, without involuntary layoffs.
If you charted the airlines’ worker pay on a line graph, the lines would have crossed about 2004, with Southwest rising to the top and most of the competition heading south.

Continue reading →