As they say in capitalist economic theory there’s only one thing worse than beating up a customer and killing a beloved bunny rabbit – and that’s upping your staff’s wages.
Last week following the announcement by American Airlines that they are offering its pilots and flight attendants an increase in pay their share price dropped significantly more than their Chicago-based counterpart, hitting turbulence after confirming it would give its pilots an eight per cent raise and its flight attendants a five per cent pay hike.
As CEO Doug Parker said in a letter to employees: “As our industry has rapidly evolved and pay increases at other airlines have accelerated, some of our colleagues have fallen behind their peers at other airlines in base pay rates.
“This doesn’t feel right for the new American, and it doesn’t feel consistent with our commitment.”
But the pay increase doesn’t seem to feel right to their shareholders, who reacted furiously to the airline’s commitment to pay their staff a fair wage.
As in-work poverty becomes increasingly prominent across the world and workers struggle to get by as multinationals rake in billions of pounds a year, is this the graph that sums up capitalism?
Late capitalism: American Airlines’ stock drops more after raising employee salaries than United’s does after brutally beating a customer. pic.twitter.com/7iSfYyUKYT
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 2, 2017