This airline has the highest-paid flight attendants ✈️

Hey there! Another day, another work trend. Today, it’s “hey-hanging,” which is when someone at your job sends you an ambiguous “hey” with no further details. 

Could they be firing you? Telling you that you screwed up an assignment? Giving you a heads-up that you left your mic on during a Zoom meeting? 

No idea…until they answer. 🤷 Understandably, this trend is causing a lot of people at work to spiral (who wouldn’t?!) over what could be a totally harmless message. 

If that dude with the sign is reading this newsletter, this is our petition to have him write “stop hey-hanging” next.

 1   Southwest Airlines flight attendants are now the highest-paid in the biz ✈️

Southwest Airlines just made headlines—and not because they stranded two million travelers over the holiday season. 🫣 It’s because their flight attendants just became the highest paid in the industry. 

So how much are they earning? New flight attendants will earn around $33.55 per hour under the new contract, while more seasoned employees will receive $84.42 an hour. 

How’d it happen? 21,000 Southwest Airlines flight attendants voted in favor of a new contract which includes an immediate 22% pay raise, a 3% raise each year until May 2028, and $364 million in retroactive payments (i.e. a one-off bonus of $20,000 or more). 

• Zoom In: The TWU 556 union also negotiated paid maternal and parental leave, as well as healthcare coverage so flight attendants can care for a newborn. 

$84.42 an hour is pretty solid…but there’s a catch: Most flight attendants only start getting paid once the airplane doors are shut. This means they’re not compensated for delays, checking in guests, preparing meals, etc. 

That said, this contract is still a huge win for flight attendants and is already changing lives. “I can’t wait to tell my kids we can get a house,” said one attendant. They deserve nothing less. 💚

 2   DHL to pay $8.7 million to settle race discrimination lawsuit 📦

Not-so-special delivery. Delivery company DHL has to pay $8.7 million to settle a race discrimination lawsuit brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), per HR Drive. 

So, what happened? DHL allegedly assigned Black drivers riskier delivery routes in high-crime areas in comparison to their white co-workers. Black drivers witnessed crimes and were victims of crimes themselves while on the job, reported the EEOC. 

There’s (unfortunately) more: The DHL also tasked Black workers with moving “large, heavy packages” that could lead to injury. Meanwhile, their white colleagues were…sorting letters. 

• Zoom Out: This isn’t the first time DHL has run into trouble. In 2023, the company coughed up $2.7 million to settle the claim that its criminal history screening policy disproportionately targeted Black and Hispanic applicants. 

The good news: DHL is on a four-year probation, with EEOC Commissioner Leslie Silverman monitoring for further offenses. But the best part? Those $8.7 million dollars will go to the 83 Black employees DHL discriminated against. 👏

 3   This college student made $105,000 selling restaurant reservations 🧑‍🍳

How much would someone pay for a reservation at a hot-shot restaurant (*not* including food)? Brown University student Alex Eisler can tell you: A lot. 

Since November 2022, Eisler’s side hustle of selling coveted restaurant reservations on Appointment Trader has generated over $105,000, per Entrepreneur. 

• By the Numbers: Eisler’s biggest sale? $1,358 for a reservation at an omakase restaurant in Boston, followed by a $1,050 sale for a spot at Carbone. 

How does he do it? Eisler made a bot that can instantly snag tables on his behalf. Then, he sells them on reservation resale sites to generate a profit. 

But before you Google “how to build a reservation bot,” you should know that this practice does more harm than good: It prevents diners from booking tables the old-fashioned way and causes restaurants to lose out on business. “If you have tables that are no-shows, the profit of the night is done,” said the co-owner of Le Bernardin. 

Happy (belated) Mother’s Day! 

To honor the incredible women in our lives, we brought together moms at the Capital One Café in Washington, DC, to learn more about what it’s truly like to be a mom in this day and age. 

These moms—both stay-at-home and working—chatted on topics such as…

• Why the US maternity leave policy is a joke (no exaggeration) 

• How motherhood transforms your professional trajectory 

• Whether they’d trade being a mom for anything 

…listen to episode eight of The Break Room down below! 👇

P.S. – Come through to any Capital One Café location (there are dozens around the US) and use your Digital Coffee Card to get a free handcrafted drink on us!

• Why companies post non-existent jobs—and how to avoid applying to them. 

• Tesla is revoking summer internships…just weeks before students were going to start. 

• Love-bombing isn’t just in romantic relationships: Employers are guilty of it, too. 

• Did you know? Air traffic controllers earn well over six figures…and are in demand. 

• This Senior Technical Account Manager earns $275,000 (and is fully remote!).

Thanks for being here! The Hunger Games—we mean The Met Gala—happened last Monday, which got us thinking: What are the numbers on this thing? Here’s what we found: 

• $75,000. The price for a single ticket. That’s more than the average down payment on a house. 🙃

• $350,000. The minimum to snag a 10-seat table. 

• $26 million. How much the Costume Institute raised during this year’s gala. 

Meanwhile…The Debt Gala (which considers itself anti-Met Gala) raised $15,000 for medical bill relief this year. You know which event we find more impressive. ☕️

See you next week!