Dallas-based Southwest Airlines will raise its minimum wage for all workers to $15 an hour by Aug. 1, giving a boost in pay to about 7,000 workers.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines told employees Friday that about 7,000 workers will be affected. The company has about 60,000 workers, and three-quarters of those are unionized, including pilots and flight attendants, who all make well above the $15 an hour rate.
The boost will give an extra $1.30 an hour on average to the workers getting a pay bump, mostly for workers that clean planes, take reservations calls, deliver parts, take customer service calls and others.
“As part of this ongoing effort, Southwest is increasing minimum pay rates so that all hourly employees will make at least $15 per hour,” said Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish. “Some of our work groups will require negotiations to make this pay increase possible, and Southwest’s intent is to have this wage increase in place by Aug. 1, 2021.”
The news comes just two days after Southwest announced a leadership transition that will see CEO Gary Kelly step down from the role and be replaced by executive vice president of corporate services Bob Jordan, a longtime employee who has served in roles such as chief operations officer. Southwest also marked the 50th anniversary of its very first flight last week.
The airline is coming off a tough financial year where it lost more than $3 billion due to the drop in traffic from the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, it was only in October that Southwest was threatening workers with furloughs unless they agreed to 10% pay cuts. However, that was averted with a second round of government payroll support, which has covered about $6 billion in costs for Southwest.
Southwest leaders have projected that the airline should make an operating profit in June, the first month it has done so since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic 15 months ago.
Even though 7,000 workers there make less than $15 an hour, Southwest has consistently ranked among the nation’s best places to work, according to the list put together by Forbes magazine. Southwest ranked 72nd on the 2021 list.
The median compensation for Southwest Airlines workers is about $66,529, including health and retirement benefits, according to regulatory filings. That dropped significantly from a year earlier, largely because a significant number of employees took voluntary leave during the pandemic or retired.
The pay figure also dropped because Southwest shared $667 million in profits with workers in 2020, an average of more than $11,000 per employee. But there were no 2020 profit-sharing payouts for workers because of steep losses that year.
Bloomberg contributed to this report
