AA employees are not the highest paid. I don't know about other employee groups, but Southwest's flight attendants are by several dollars/hr the highest paid domestic flight attendants. They are paid by the "trip"--1 trip=243 air miles (IIRC), but when you convert those trips to hourly pay, they top out at over $50/hr.
Perhaps nothing better crystallizes the gulf between the unions and the company than the above statement.
It's not about what AA employees are paid, but rather what they
cost. Those are two very different things.
For certain work groups, in certain circumstances, other airlines' employees in comparable labor groups are paid more on a base pay ($/hour) salary basis. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that those work groups'
cost to those airlines is higher. Beyond base pay, AA's cash outlays for its defined benefit pension plans have a substantial cost that many other airlines have reduced by either dumping their plans on the government, freezing their plans and halting any future contributions, and/or shifting new (and old) workers into defined contribution and/or 401(k) plans.
And - critically - while many airlines may pay certain work groups more on a per-person basis, those airlines all generally employee relatively fewer people in the operation of their system. So sure - do other legacy carriers have a bit higher base pay for pilots and flight attendants? Perhaps. But those airlines also use those mainline pilots and flight attendants for a smaller and smaller portion of their system as more flying has shifted to regionals. Do other legacy carriers have a bit higher base pay for mechanics? Perhaps. But those airlines also have dramatically fewer mechanics since they have nearly or completely outsourced overhauls to third parties. Those costs add up, and thus AA has among the lowest
productivity - measured by a variety of metrics - of any airline in the U.S.
AA's current labor contracts have also hamstrung AA's ability to match what other airlines have done in several areas - most notably with SCOPE and outsourcing of flying to regionals, and with some long-haul flying, where other airlines' contracts (particularly with pilots) are often substantially less restrictive. This has given those airlines more flexibility to rapidly adapt to evolving market conditions and competitive dynamics. AA's labor challenge isn't all about merely direct "cost" - some of it is about missed opportunities, or "opportunity cost". I don't claim to know how to quantify that opportunity cost - but it does exist.
