Southwest Airlines knows that it needs more people if it plans to keep up with the current travel demand. The airline announced its plans to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Their reason for this move is to both keep and attract workers.
The raise is going to take effect on August 1. This move will benefit around 7,000 Southwest employees.
According to spokesman Brad Hawkins, “Southwest continually works to attract and retain the best candidates for open positions”. He added that “As part of this ongoing effort, Southwest is increasing minimum pay rates so that all hourly employees will make at least $15 per hour”.
With more people vaccinated, travel demand has picked up recently. TSA even recorded more than 2 million passengers on several occasions. This happened seven times in just the last two weeks.
Southwest Airlines relies more on domestic travelers than other US airlines such as Delta, American, and United. Other airlines are more reliant on business travel, which is still down. Because of its business plan, Southwest even made a small profit during this year’s first quarter. But of course, it isn’t all because of their passengers. There is also the federal pandemic relief.
Raising the Minimum Wage to Maintain and Attract Employees
Just how big is the manpower problem in the aviation industry today? Some experts believe that the industry has been dealing with pilot shortages lately. American Airlines increased its flights from 2,200 a day last year during the peak of the pandemic to 5,800 this month. Unfortunately, this is too overwhelming. Some of the pilots are either on furlough or still re-training.
And it is not just the pandemic that caused the pilot shortage. According to United CEO Scott Kirby, “The military produces far fewer pilots today than they did”. He added that “it’s hard to become a pilot, a commercial pilot, on your own if you’re not going through the military”.
