All eligible Delta employees will receive a 6 percent pay raise in April 2017, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian announced Tuesday.
There are approximately 85,000 Delta employees world wide, and 65,000 are eligible for the raise. The 6 percent, combined with the 18 percent raise Delta gave its employees in 2015, means that most Delta Air Lines employees have seen a 25 percent raise in pay over the past two years.
Thousands of Delta employees in Seattle, Wash., and Minneapolis, Minn., will be on the receiving end of the wage increases, something media is already saying may boost the local economy.
Effective Jan. 1, 2017, eligible employees will see an increase in what Delta contributes into their 401(k) accounts. On April 1, 2017, eligible employees at all levels of the pay scale will receive a 6 percent increase in base pay. Performance-based rewards and merit pay increases will also kick in.
The wage increases come as a part of Delta’s profit sharing plan, which is set up to share 10 percent of all profits with employees. The 10 percent bar is raised to 20 percent if the company earns more than $2.5 billion in a year.
Delta has passed down $4,1 billion in profit sharing and other performance-based rewards over the past five years, according to Business Insider.
Earlier this week, Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway made a substantial new investment in Delta, purchasing 6.33 million shares of the airline’s stock. Buffett has made new investments in American Airlines and United Airlines as well.
Delta’s pilots are voting on a new contract offer from the company. The proposed contract would give pilots a raise of 30.2 percent over the next four years. (RELATED: Delta Air Lines Pilots Vote On New Contract)
The Air Line Pilots Association union at Delta has been fighting for pay raises after its members took massive pay cuts during the great recession. The union, which represents 13,000 pilots, is asking for an immediate 18 percent raise, while also receiving a 3 percent raise in both 2017 and 2018. A 4 percent raise in 2019 is a part of the proposed contract, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The deadline for pilots to cast their vote is Dec. 1. It is unclear if the announcement Tuesday will have any effect on the outcome.
Send Tips to ted@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
