The American Airlines pay table explained line by line: the hourly rate by year, the boarding pay, the per diem
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#1 American DFW, six years, union rep, and the editorial thread on this site now links the APFA contract as the primary source for American's pay, which is right. The contract is long and the applicants do not read it. Here is the pay section explained line by line, with the numbers left to the document because they change with each year of the agreement.
The hourly rate by year
The contract has a pay scale: an hourly rate for each year of service from year one to the top of scale (around year thirteen), rising each year. A new hire is paid the year one rate per flight hour; a year four crew member the year four rate. The scale is the document's first page and the thing to read first.
The boarding pay
The 2024 agreement's change that the industry copied, as Jenna and Jim said: pay for the boarding period at a rate (a fraction of the hourly rate), which did not exist before and which added real money to a four sector domestic day. The boarding pay is a line on the pay stub and a line in the contract.
The per diem
The hourly amount for every hour away from base, domestic and international at different rates, tax free up to the federal limit, paid for the whole trip from sign on to sign off. The per diem on a three day international trip is a real amount and the crew who hold international earn it.
The international override
The additional hourly amount for the international flying, on top of the hourly rate, which is the reason the international lines pay more than the domestic ones at the same hours. The override, the per diem and the longer hours are the three reasons a year four international line pays more than a year four domestic one.
The other lines
The lead flight attendant premium (the purser equivalent), the language premium (the Spanish and the others on the qualified routes), the holiday pay, the reserve guarantee (the minimum hours paid on reserve), the profit sharing (American's version, smaller than Delta's), the 401k match, the health insurance contribution.
What a year four DFW line actually pays
A year four crew member on a DFW line of Latin America international and some domestic: the year four hourly rate times the credit hours (not the block hours, as Chris's roster thread explained), plus the international override on the international hours, plus the boarding pay, plus the per diem for the hours away, plus the language premium if qualified. The contract has every number and the pay stub has the lines. The forum estimate on this site is a secondary source and the APFA table is the primary one, and the site now says so on the American page, which it should.
For the applicants comparing the US majors
Read the APFA contract for American, the AFA contracts for United and Alaska, the TWU 556 for Southwest, and Delta's published policy. The contracts are public and the pay tables are in them. Nobody at a US major should be guessing from a forum.
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#2 American Chicago, and the APFA contract explained line by line is the thread I send the new hires who ask about the pay: the scale, the boarding pay, the per diem, the override. Matthew has done the union rep's job on the forum. The document is the source.
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#3 United Newark, and the AFA United contract has the same lines with different numbers and the boarding pay came to us after the APFA set it. Matthew's line by line applies to the United contract with the document swapped. Read the contract.
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#4 Delta Atlanta, and Delta's published policy has the same lines without the union and the profit sharing larger, as Cassie said. The line by line is the thing to read whatever the airline. Matthew's version is the clearest.
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#5 Recruiter, and the site's editorial thread pointing at the APFA contract as the primary source was the right correction and Matthew's thread is the forum's version of the same honesty. The forum is commentary. The contract is the table.
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#6 WestJet Calgary, and the CUPE agreement at WestJet has the same lines (the hourly, the per diem, the premiums) without the boarding pay yet, which is the fight. Matthew's line by line is the template the Canadian crew use to read ours.
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#7 Delta JFK, and 'nobody at a US major should be guessing from a forum' is the sentence the US section of this forum should pin. The contracts are public. The forum is where we explain them. Matthew has explained the biggest one.