FA Salaries

[herenorthere]

HI everyone,

I was wondering if someone could answer a few quetions.

1) What is the starting salary of a Flight Attendent (No Experience) with WestJet after the training etc.
2) Is there a standard wage increase vs period of time?
3) I have also heard that you only get paid for flight time is this true?

[Martin Tamme]

Before you ask any further questions, no I don't work for Westjet. However, the pay structure is standard with the rest of the industry.




1) The starting rate is $24.85 per flight hour (flight hour is defined as the time the aircraft moves under its own power to the time it comes to a rest at the end of a flight). F/As normally work 80 flight hours per month.

2) I've attached the Westjet Flight Attendant Pay Grid (from public sources) indicating the wage increase vs period to time:






3) Yes, you only get paid per flight hour. The HRDC equates 1 flight hour to 2 hours of work in the average outside sector. As such, an 80-hours flight schedule per month is the equivalent of working 160 hours a month in the outside sector. Or, you can equate the starting salary as being approximately $12.50 per hour.

[YYCcrew]

Here is the latest WJ F/A rates,

Flight Attendant

Annually Hourly
Step 1 Start Rate $27,070 $28.20
Step 2 Completed 9 months $27,940 $29.10
Step 3 Completed 1.5 years $29,760 $31.00
Step 4 Completed 2 years $31,200 $32.50
Step 5 Completed 2.5 years $32,160 $33.50
Step 6 Completed 3 years $33,600 $35.00
Step 7 Completed 3.5 years $34,560 $36.00
Step 8 Completed 4 years $36,000 $37.50
Step 9 Completed 4.5 years $37,200 $38.75
Step 10 Completed 5 years $38,540 $40.15
Step 11 Completed 6 years $39,740 $41.40
Step 12 Completed 7 years $40,940 $42.65

Hourly rate is based on 960 hours per year.
To recognize the lead role performed by all WestJet Flight Attendants, a $3.16 premium has been added to the FA rates based on market rates for FA Lead divided by 4 Flight Attendants.

[invertedattitude]

Is there much oppertunity for FA's to work overtime?

[CanadaEH]

Lots.

[vortac]

So let me get this straight.... Under no circumstance can an FA make more than a pilot who is even in his first yr. What a novel idea. I mean, I absolutely love it when I got to work, actually use my head and make life threatning decisions on behalf ofr hundreds of people and Barbara Bush in the back make more than I do.

No to mention the WJ FA's do it with smiles on their faces and engage the customers in sincere ways.
Good for you WJ.

[Kitababy]

Hi I'm looking for more recent Salaries/Pay scale for WJ FA... please and thanks

as well is over time double or 1.5 & I've heard you can work your vacations so you bascially get double there? What does 1st year FA make if they were to work say 100FH's/month?

Thanks in Advance

[stickontheice]

My understanding of FA pay is that you get paid minimum 80 hours regardless if you're only scheduled to say 75 hours one month. OT is at 1.5X your rate.

If you're on reserve during that month and you get called out you get a minimum of 4.5 hours per day if the flying turns out to be more than 4.5 hours then you top your month up to 80 hours and after 80 its OT. Using the 75 hour month, for example if you have a 4 day reserve that would be worth 18 hours credit (4.5 hrs x 4 days). Let's say you get called out during reserve and fly 25 hours then you do 5 hours of straight time and get 2 extra hours of OT.

If Crew Sched calls you out during the month outside of reserve that time is paid at overtime. If you pick up Crew Sched. placed time on our internet based scheduler "Flica" then its OT. If you pick up another FA's shift, again on Flica, then its straight time regardless if you go over 80 hours.

Yes you can give up your vacation and work but fatigue and stress is a big part of aviation. Don't forget to have some fun. Afterall you'd be working for an airline!

FAs are obviously eligible for Profit share and our Employee Share Program which helps out your bottom line. You also get meal and dry cleaning allowances on top of that.

So if you were to work 100 hours per month it would really depend on how those hours were done to determine your monthly pay.

[Legacy]

So let me get this straight.... Under no circumstance can an FA make more than a pilot who is even in his first yr. What a novel idea. I mean, I absolutely love it when I got to work, actually use my head and make life threatning decisions on behalf ofr hundreds of people and Barbara Bush in the back make more than I do.

You ARE just kidding right? Let me see. 10 years of as a pilot, 50K invested in a pilot's training not to mention the 10's of thousands WJ invested in each FO who, by the way, have been making life threatening decisions for many years as a pilot. Please don't demean our profession.

[ziggy]

Um, i don't think Vortac was demeaning our profession. The way I read it, he was making a comment that FAs, under no circumstance can make more than a pilot at any time. I think he was defending the pay structure (pilot vs. Flighty) but who am I to know.

[Kitababy]

wow sounds confusing, I'm just hoping I can make enough to not notice the difference in my salary when I hopfully change over.... but yet like you said enjoy it too! I look forward to it! Is it true its anegative to say you like travelling to your interviewer? I'm nervous about the interview & I don't even have one yet I want this career so bad, I've waited too long to make this change in my life!

[Legacy]

Sorry if I took that the wrong way then. If I did, I'm an idiot. It just sounded that way. Woops

[KAG]

The starting hourly wage for a FA is around $28.25/hr. I know some FA's who work 120 credit hours a month. With FLICA, you can pick up as many hours as you want (there are some limits) or drop a bunch and have lots of time off.

[SevenThreeOne]

So let me get this straight.... Under no circumstance can an FA make more than a pilot who is even in his first yr. What a novel idea. I mean, I absolutely love it when I got to work, actually use my head and make life threatning decisions on behalf ofr hundreds of people and Barbara Bush in the back make more than I do.

No to mention the WJ FA's do it with smiles on their faces and engage the customers in sincere ways.
Good for you WJ.

First of all, as a disclaimer, if you are being sarcastic please dis-regard my post.

But I completely agree, What a joke.. I mean, what do pilots do anyway. It's not like they dump thousands of dollars into an education, work under extremely stressful conditions with the lives of hundreds in their hands under strict regulation and procedure

Anyone with all their teeth over the age of majority can be a flight attendant.. and I don't exactly see how opening pop cans and closing overhead bins constitutes any degree of life threatening decision, that is of course unless you burn some angry passengers first class meal.. then man, things could go awry.

[mattedfred]

the flight attendants that i work with are an essential part of my team. safety is the number one priority of my team. my flight attendant is an essential component of the safe operation of our flight. i rely on my flight attendants training and experience when they are providing me with either solicited or unsolicited information that may or may not affect the decisions i must make. my flight attendant has the ability to save the lives of every one of my passengers as well as the rest of my crew.

it would be fine if my employer chose to hire biscuit shooters and have them work on my aircraft, as long as my flight attendant gets to come along in order to ensure we operate safely.

but i'm weird like that

[balfour]

the flight attendants that i work with are an essential part of my team. safety is the number one priority of my team. my flight attendant is an essential component of the safe operation of our flight. i rely on my flight attendants training and experience when they are providing me with either solicited or unsolicited information that may or may not affect the decisions i must make. my flight attendant has the ability to save the lives of every one of my passengers as well as the rest of my crew.

it would be fine if my employer chose to hire biscuit shooters and have them work on my aircraft, as long as my flight attendant gets to come along in order to ensure we operate safely.

but i'm weird like that

Post of the year!

[SevenThreeOne]

the flight attendants that i work with are an essential part of my team. safety is the number one priority of my team. my flight attendant is an essential component of the safe operation of our flight. i rely on my flight attendants training and experience when they are providing me with either solicited or unsolicited information that may or may not affect the decisions i must make. my flight attendant has the ability to save the lives of every one of my passengers as well as the rest of my crew.

it would be fine if my employer chose to hire biscuit shooters and have them work on my aircraft, as long as my flight attendant gets to come along in order to ensure we operate safely.

but i'm weird like that

+1

[Mustard]

It takes years to make an airline pilot and it takes about 2 weeks to make a flight attendant.

Salaries should reflect that.

[moreccsplease]

the flight attendants that i work with are an essential part of my team. safety is the number one priority of my team. my flight attendant is an essential component of the safe operation of our flight. i rely on my flight attendants training and experience when they are providing me with either solicited or unsolicited information that may or may not affect the decisions i must make. my flight attendant has the ability to save the lives of every one of my passengers as well as the rest of my crew.

it would be fine if my employer chose to hire biscuit shooters and have them work on my aircraft, as long as my flight attendant gets to come along in order to ensure we operate safely.

but i'm weird like that

Yes, I'm sure a lot of us agree with that. But I figure you're from Jazz, and at Jazz an A-scale FA makes more than a junior First Officer, and THAT is BS. It MUST change.

With our new contract coming along (conciliation soon), I think we're going to see big gains for pilots at Jazz.

[YYCcrew]

We have this argument at least once a year on here, "F/A's Vs. Pilots" For those of you who think they are useless and don't deserve the pay they get....

Incident: United Airlines A319 near Buffalo on Mar 5th 2010, fire in lavatory
By Simon Hradecky, created Friday, Mar 5th 2010 15:55Z, last updated Friday, Mar 5th 2010 15:59Z

A United Airlines Airbus A319-100, registration N819UA performing flight UA-769 from Rochester,NY to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA) with 127 people on board, was climbing through 11000 feet out of Rochester, when the crew reported smoke in the cabin and decided to divert to Buffalo,NY (USA). While on final approach the crew reported, that the fire was out and they won't evacuate the aircraft. The airplane landed safely on runway 23 about 10 minutes later, vacated the runway and stopped on an adjacent taxiway to have emergency services examine the aircraft.

Buffalo's Niagara Airport reported, that a water pump sparked a small fire in the rear lavatory, which was put out by a flight attendant. Emergency services did not need to intervene anymore.

[bombardierfixer]

What about maintenance? Where do we fit into the grand scheme of things?

[KAG]

It's not that the FA's are over paid, its that the pilots (Jazz) are under paid. Don't take your frustrations out on the FA's, fight for the wages/contract you feel you deserve.
Good luck.

[mattedfred]

or quit and go to WJ

[leftyxl]

We love Mtc too
big hug