What Do Flight Attendants Earn? Annual Wages, Contract Pay Scales and Employment of US Flight Attendants from BLS OEWS Data and Airline Agreements, 2011–2026

Flight-attendant pay is reported in two incompatible currencies: official statistics give an annual wage, while airline contracts give rates per flight hour or trip credit. We set the two side by side. From Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), the 131,650 US flight attendants had a median annual wage of USD 63,580 and a mean of USD 77,440 in May 2025; the 90th percentile, USD 136,430, was 3.89 times the 10th, against 2.50 in 2011. The median rose 67% from 2011 to 2025 in current dollars but 17% in 2025 dollars, and stood 13.4% below its 2020 real peak, a year of falling employment. From published agreements and union summaries for six airlines, starting rates ranged from USD 25.50 per flight hour at Frontier to USD 38.21 at United, and top-of-scale rates, reached after 13 to 20 years, were 2.29 to 2.69 times the starting rate. Federal rules allow a 14-hour scheduled duty day, but contracts pay block or credit hours; boarding pay was introduced between 2022 and 2026, and per diem of USD 2.85 to USD 3.63 per hour away from base, profit sharing and retroactive settlements lie outside the official wage. Among 19 states with published wages, the mean ranged from USD 115,670 in New York to USD 43,130 in Pennsylvania. Employment grew 51% between 2011 and 2025 and is projected to grow 8.8% to 2035. All inputs are public.