Delta Employees Get 4% Pay Raises, Despite Economic Uncertainty

Delta Air Lines has today announced that employees will be getting a 4% pay increase as of June 1, 2025 (thanks to @xJonNYC for flagging this). Well, all non-union employees…

Non-union Delta employees get pay bump

As of June 1, 2025, Delta is offering a 4% base pay increase for ground and flight attendant employees, at all steps of the pay scale. Delta is also introducing a total pool of 4% for merit increases, which will be allocated to eligible merit employees, in varying percentages, based on individual performance and market competitiveness.

Delta has pretty consistently offered its employees annual pay increases, and this will be the fourth consecutive annual pay increase. We saw a 5% pay increase in June 2024, a 5% pay increase in April 2023, and a 4% pay increase in May 2022.

This latest pay bump amounts to an investment of several hundred million dollars. This arrangement includes all employees worldwide, other than those covered by an industry or government requirement, or a collective bargaining agreement. For example, pilots are the biggest group at Delta that are unionized, and they ratified a lucrative contract in March 2023, with massive pay raises.

Delta also does more profit sharing than any other US airline, and back in February 2025, Delta paid $1.4 billion in bonuses. That amounts to about 10% per eligible employee (and this includes union employees too), which is more than the profit sharing pool of all competitors combined.

In a memo to employees, Delta CEO Ed Bastian acknowledged the current economic uncertainty associated with macro trade policies, though went on to state:

For a century, Delta has acted on the belief that when we invest in our people first, they deliver excellence for our customers. These core values have helped us stand the test of time for 100 years and will continue into our next century of flight.”

“As we navigate these headwinds, we will continue to stay focused on protecting our people, our business, and our future, and strengthening Delta for the long term.”

Delta does a good job keeping employees non-unionized

Delta is unique among US airlines when it comes unionization. Delta has the fewest unionized workgroups of any major US airline. While there have been efforts for many years to get more groups to unionize, in the end a majority always voted against it (at least until now).

Delta does a good job finding a balance, by treating employees well, aligning them with the company’s mission, incentivizing them with big profit sharing, and providing plenty of proactive pay raises. Ultimately unions at other airlines don’t have a lot to show when it comes to pay negotiation compared to Delta.

As long as a majority of non-unionized Delta employees continue to be happy with that arrangement, I think Delta should be commended for being able to maintain such good relations. These kinds of pay raises, along with initiatives like being the first airline in the US to start paying flight attendants during boarding, go a long way to earning the trust of employees.

Bottom line

Delta employees are getting a pay raise of 4% as of June 2025. This follows a 5% pay increase in 2024, a 5% pay increase in 2023, and a 4% pay increase in 2022, plus 10% profit sharing for each of the past couple of years. Congrats to Delta employees on their upcoming pay bumps!

What do you make of Delta’s pay raise for non-union employees?