What are typical ramp agent salaries?

Do some companies pay a lot more for this position than others? What does a top earner make in this field?

What skills should you learn to increase your salary?

9.00an hr @ St Paul International Airport...Know not enough pay for the hard work the employees do.

kane said: 9.00an hr @ St Paul International Airport...Know not enough pay for the hard work the employees do.

Which airline do you work for?

I work for COMAIR after a year with Airtran. Being a ramp agent/ customer service is hard. It's like you died and you are being punished in hell. You clean Aircraft inside and out. Picture this , it is hard to clean your own car ,what more for an airbus / or a boeing plus their toilet/lavatory filled with filthy puke. AUagh. Their 9 dollars per hour is not worth it. Am studying to become a technician. After 3 more months , I am out of here. Out of Airline hell. NO more heavy bags/baggage excercise. It's like I am training for boxing. I tell you. Ramp agents don't last, unless you are autistic / moron

I never knew you had to clean the inside of the planes too. What do you all have to clean inside?

Dale in Floral City, Florida said: I never knew you had to clean the inside of the planes too. What do you all have to clean inside?

Most airlines have companies clean aircraft for them pick-up trash on floor clean seats,flightdeck so on.

Host said: Do some companies pay a lot more for this position than others? What does a top earner make in this field?

What skills should you learn to increase your salary?

Not a good feild to get into .Alot of airlines are cutting down on pay.NWA 9.00hr United 9.50hr Delta 9.00hr they want all part time employes and trying to cut out us full timers out.We top out at $17.90 plus our stock.

Roy Calzaghe. alias in Orlando, Florida said: I work for COMAIR after a year with Airtran. Being a ramp agent/ customer service is hard. It's like you died and you are being punished in hell. You clean Aircraft inside and out. Picture this , it is hard to clean your own car ,what more for an airbus / or a boeing plus their toilet/lavatory filled with filthy puke. AUagh. Their 9 dollars per hour is not worth it. Am studying to become a technician. After 3 more months , I am out of here. Out of Airline hell. NO more heavy bags/baggage excercise. It's like I am training for boxing. I tell you. Ramp agents don't last, unless you are autistic / moron

Ya or in your case making 9.00hr.

kane said: 9.00an hr @ St Paul International Airport...Know not enough pay for the hard work the employees do.

Are you at NWA.

In tallin they pay us about 6 dollars an hour, and they call it huge.

US AIRWAY PAYS 9.80 IN PHL. YOU MIGHT AS WELL DRIVE THE SHUTTLE BUS SAME PAY, LESS STRESS, AND NO LONG TRAINING TIME WHERE YOU HAVE TO MEMORIZE ALLLLL OF THE AIRPORT CODES. GOOD LUCK

OH YEA AND ALL THE TRAVEL BENIFITS

Any idea about how schedule works?
I'm interested in part-time one.
Ty.

Does Airtran pay weekly or biweekly - does anyone know

Southwest is the only worthwhile airline to work ramp in. They have the best benefits, medical, flight, proffit sharing, 401k match, as well as the best pay. Currently a senior ramp agent makes $25.22 an hour. Job security is also top notch. They're the top airline in the industry and in no danger of going anywhere, and ramp agents belong to the TWU 555 union. Which basically means you can't be fired even if the company whats to. You're on a points system which which ranges from -4 to Positive 7. Each time you call in sick for work you are given 1 point, but you can call in 2 days in a row and still only get the one point. Your points reduce by 2 every 3 months. The union contract makes it so that the only reason anyone can ever be fired is if they exceed their point limit, and the only way you can receive points is from attendance. Which means basically it doesn't matter what you do when you're on the job aside from crashing into an airplane, you can't be canned, which is not entirely a good thing actually. Basically, you get a TON of leniency. They're on a hiring freeze right now though so it's nearly impossible to get in, but if you can you've got a good job for life.

The current pay scale is as follows..

10.80
11.47
11.94
13.36
15.09
16.36
17.61
18.49
19.16
20.03
20.89
25.22

A topped out Southwest Airlines ramp agent makes a base yearly wage of $54,000 a year. With minnimal overtime many agent eclipse $70,000 a year.

Keep one thing in mind though. Southwest is a slightly different airline than you may be acustomed to. Being a ramp agent for Southwest is not the typical entry level ramp rat job that it is with many of the other airlines. They have very restrictive hiring criteria, and they expect you to WORK. Southwest turns their flights in 25 minutes flat. That includes the time the plane pulls into the gate till the flight leaves on it's next flight. The complete offload of passengers and bags to the complete onload.

I've been working in the baggage room for 8 months. I was hired as a seasonal employee and now I'm Ready Reserve. Our bidding process is coming up in March and I may end up on the ramp which I really don't want so I'm trying to decide whether or not to stay in the industry at all. Any suggestions?

john from chicago is pretty right on. the point system actually goes from -5 to +7, and the wages have actually increased since the latest contract signed last year

I worked for United Express and LOVED IT! I would have stayed forever, but that pay just couldn't cut it. As a United Express employee we were trained to know everything: ramp, gate, customer service, baggage, load planning.

For training they paid me to stay in a great hotel and party it up all night, and only have to be to class in the morning. Two week trainings were a paid vacation.

We didn't have a cleaning crew so we had to:
clean and straighten the seat backs, wipe down the tray tables, cross seat belts, clean bathrooms, change pillow cases, fold blankets, etc. Sometimes the plane would come in with a mechanical problem and someone would have to basically spend the night to wait for the mechanics. That was nice if you wanted OT, but sucked if you got stuck doing it as the lowest seniority.

And on the outside of the plane we would have to empty the lavatory into the lav cart. One false move and ahhhhh!

The shift bidding threw me cause if any of those senior people decided to take nights, I would have been screwed. But day trades were always good and allowed me to work as many shifts as I could but then have a month or more off to use my free flight benefits and take advantage of the many airline employee benefits (like perx.com). This is a great job for students, retirees or anyone looking to travel because although you know this isn't going to be your career, you learn a lot and can travel the world.

I'm rambling so I'll just say we worked like DOGS and made next to nothing! Getting the luggage out of the pit is no joke. We had to have the quick turnaround and had to deal with crabby people due to all the delays, overbooking, lost baggage etc.

I learned a lot about patience, teamwork and dependability. One definitely affects the whole! If someone called in sick they didn't call someone else to cover. If you usually closed with five people, having one man down was extremely difficult and frustrating.

maeby in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida said: john from chicago is pretty right on. the point system actually goes from -5 to +7, and the wages have actually increased since the latest contract signed last yea

im getting ready to start training in 2 weeks here at dallas texas. i got laid off workin for alaska airlines. here. how does southwest airlines handle the show on the ramp ? and whats the starting wage on the ramp? and how are our flight bennies and who else can we fly on?

You don't want to work for any express airlines, they all pay crap for wages. Southwest pays best, at over 26.00 per hour Continental/United pays just over 23.00 per hour. They also have a decent pension (Southwest doesnt have a pension plan)and better flight benefits then Southwest. Both airlines have 401k's. Those are the best 2 airlines to work for. American and Delta would be the next best to work for, other then that, the rest are just a joke......

working for spirit airlines...what a frikin joke. they pay 8.94/hr (ya...they dont bother to tack on the extra 0.06) and were worked like crazy. only 5 full-timers on the whole crew and we push in 35 minutes. only positive side is the flight benefits which im sure is nothing compared to the top airlines right now. i heard a topped out ramp agent hit 15/hr and thats being a supervisor too (so more work...)

If you work for spirit airlines do you get Flight benifits if your part/time and full time?

Most airlines offer flight benefits, which is what makes the jobs attractive to some even if the pay is not great. Spirit is no different. Even the crappy regionals offer their employees free travel at least on themselves, and usually also the airline they are flying on code with. Not a bad deal as long as you're not financially motivated and don't mind getting treated poorly at times. I came up that way. I worked for a while at a small regional (who's not even in business anymore) and I eventually got in at Southwest where I wanted to be all along. I'm 5 years in now, make a bit over 40k and look forward to making over 70k within 6 years. I'm in the union, have generous vacation time, free travel, cheap meidcal and dental, retirement, and enjoy the work I do.. Life's good.

What Union are the customer service agents represented in southwest?

Customer service is represented by IAM

Applied for a ramp agent job little over month ago. Got a email saying the would like to have a phone interview last week on Tuesday. I did the phone interview they then asked for a face to face interview so I schedule it the same week on Friday. After that they told me it could take up to one to two weeks but maybe even Monday to hear back from them for the next process. Monday I got a call from them saying I have been selected to go on to the next round and can I do my drug and finger prints. I said sure and did it all that same day. Now the waiting begins again. Yesterday I got a email from the background people asking for a little help and I responded instantly so there wouldn't be any hold up. So here I am again waiting to hear from the background company if my response helped what they need or if they need more info. Or I am waiting to hear from Southwest.

how long does it take to get top pay?

How many years does it take to top pay as a Southwest Ramp Agent?

cjm in Round Lake, Illinois said: How many years does it take to top pay as a Southwest Ramp Agent?

11 years

"How many years does it take to top pay as a Southwest Ramp Agent?"

11 years

I'm adding to my initial comments above. Basically since I left United Express the benefits went to crap! You now have to wait SIX MONTHS to travel. You pay half on your uniforms and if you quit before a year you have to pay the other half as well (on the bright side a lot of times they have extra leftover uniforms that previous people have graciously left behind). You also have to pay for the union fees which if you're part time is a good chunk of your check. There are no companion passes on this airline. I'm not sure I would return with all those changes.

I know that Delta pays better, starts their benefits right away and offers companion passes as well.

Like I said,.. The regionals are no good. You have to understand something about the airline industry. The regionals (who are actually separate airlines called things like Air Wisconsin, SkyWest, Mesa, Shuttle America, Pinnacle, etc) are used to do mainline flying for one reason and one reason only. They do it cheaper than the actual airlines can do it themselves. The reason why they can do it cheaper is because they operate on shoe string budgets and pay crap wages to their employees. They operate renegade management styles. They intentionally keep turn over rates high for frontline employees so as not to have to pay them their 35 cent raises and to prevent any unity from taking place. That's the reality of the regional airline business. It's no place you want to hang your hat as a long term employee. Essentially it's outsourcing of work that would otherwise be done by people with good paying jobs and benefits. It's not much different than when jobs get shipped off overseas to be done with lower wage costs by foreign workers, it's just that it's the low income citizens of our own country who are being exploited instead of foreign workers.

Does anyone know if Southwest is hiring at Midway in the near future?

They're almost always hiring at MDW, huge turnover, rough station to start in, but the company is great.

Actually there's hardly any turnover at MDW at all. It's hiring is to accommodate growth of the station. MDW is in a constant state of adding flights. Once you're hired and off probation, hardly anyone ever leaves.

MDW is actually not as bad as it once was. The operation is better run and the staffing levels are just about up to where they should be. We even had a brief spell of overtime shortage. The roughest part about it is the weather.

But Bob, to answer your question.. Yes.. We are going to be hiring a lot of new people this spring to help ease some growing pains at MDW. Keep an eye out for the sporadic MDW ramp postings on the Southwest page, because I know that they are actively interviewing right now.

Hey nobodys mentioned another great airline to work for.......JETBLUE!!!
I mean its only won the J.D. Power award 6 years in row for best airline overall.
Anyway from an employee's standpoint, its a great airline. I would say flying wise, it the best airline to fly on for sure. Pay and benefits arent bad. I work in Mco( Orlando) and starting pay here is 10.50 start. After 6pm.. you get 50¢ more per hr. Other cities with higher cost of living start at 11.00. You top out here in mco after 10 yrs with $19.75.
Benefits are great with the usual 401k/ medical/ and of course the free flying which goes into effect from day 1 when you start. Also we have tons of counter to counter agreements here where you can fly free on almost any other airlines and the ones that arent free usually are dirt cheap. Example: I flew from NY to London roundtrip on Virgin for $300 roundtrip!! Many coworkers here actually have other full time jobs that pay more and work pt here doing the minimum hrs just for the awesome flight benefits. I have been with JB for 2 yrs now making 12.75. Also you can do basically unlimited amount of hrs. Many guys here do 80+ which is crazy. However most of that is sfraight pay and not overtime unless you pick up supervisor shifts, which dont come
often. However as far as the best airline goes concerning pay and benefits, go to Southwest, they are the big dogs on campus. More money, better benefits, more job security, although JB also is a very secure airline. I actually just applied for SW only because my wife is from Albuquerque and we hope to move there some day and I could transfer there. JB doesnt fly there so thats why I applied today. Its funny because they only posted the ad for like 30 minutes. Hopefully they call soon. I will be taking a paycut because i believe they start at 10.28 but in like 3 yrs i will probably make more than what i would have made staying with.JB for 5 yrs. Its a good move hopefully in the long run. Any questions just ask. Rick

I should update as the pay scale posted above is old and no longer accurate. Current Southwest ramp payscale is as follows.

$10.28/$11.12 (after 6 months)
$11.47
$11.94
$13.36
$15.09
$16.36
$17.61
$18.49
$19.34
$20.22
$21.09
$25.97

Look for it to change again this year as the contract is currently being renegotiated.
Conservatively I would expect the updated scale to look something like this.

$10.48/$11.34
$11.56
$12.15
$12.65
$14.16
$16.00
$17.37
$18.66
$19.60
$20.50
$21.43
$22.35
$27.52

I made an error in that "projected scale". Ignore the $11.56 step..

John in Chicago, Illinois said: I should update as the pay scale posted above is old and no longer accurate. Current Southwest ramp payscale is as follows.

$10.28/$11.12 (after 6 months)
$11.47
$11.94
$13.36
$15.09
$16.36
$17.61
$18.49
$19.34
$20.22
$21.09
$25.97

Look for it to change again this year as the contract is currently being renegotiated.
Conservatively I would expect the updated scale to look something like this.

$10.48/$11.34
$11.56
$12.15
$12.65
$14.16
$16.00
$17.37
$18.66
$19.60
$20.50
$21.43
$22.35
$27.52

Thx for that list John, it puts JB to shame. Currently our top out pay is after 10 yrs at $19.75. When are negotiations completed for the pay and does it go into effect right away? Do you guys negotiate every year?

The major downside to the scale at Jetblue in my opinion is that it's not a contract. There's no union backbone behind it. There's no representing body who goes to the table and makes sure that scale keeps up with the cost of living. There's also nothing preventing the company from one day just unilaterally deciding to reduce the wages. You can be sure of one thing, when a company is forced to look at their books and make cut backs, they will always take the path of least resistance and zero in on the non-unionized departments.

The wages that Southwest employees earn is what all other airline employees SHOULD be earning. It's not that we make so much, it's that everyone else is making very little. These are SUPPOSED to be good well paying jobs. Go look at the United and AA ramp wages 15-20 years ago. Recent industry hardships (while legitimate) have given companies the perfect opportunity to slash wage costs. But do they put them back when times get better? NO! Our negotiations routinely go before the NMB and it's been determined that the wages spelled out in our contract are reasonable and able to be afforded by the company based on revenue generated. Companies can easily afford to pay these wages, but maybe the executives get 1 less million $ bonus per quarter. Essentially, every cent you're being paid UNDER what a Southwest employee makes is money that the company has exploited out of you.

Once a contract is finalized it goes into effect immediately and technically it goes into effect retroactively from when the previous contract expired, so there will typically be a back pay check from that date.

Contracts are valid for a set period of time that is determined during the negotiating process. Since I've been with the company our contracts have ranged from 3-5 years. So every 3-5 years the contract gets renegotiated, and it basically just entails a cost of living adjustment to the pay scale and some minor language improvement

You are absolutely right. In the 3 yrs that I've been here, I have heard of talks about unionizing for pilots and FAs but never for us here on the ramp. I also heard that if pilots or FAs went union, the whole company will have to go union much like you guys. If I dont get hired by you guys, I will stay here but I hope we can start the process of unionizing. I know some pilots want to go, but I'm surprised that they havent yet made any headway into unionizing instead of just talking about it.

Don't wait for the pilots. Lead the charge and unionize the ramp. Contact the TWU and express your interest in organizing. If you guys are unified in your desire for representation, an election can be held and a union will be certified on your behalf. The sooner we can get unions on more properties in the industry the better the future will be for ALL of us.

If you work hard on the ramp at Southwest Airlines...What is a responable time frame to get promted and what is the starting and top pay for a supervisor????????

If you work hard on the ramp at Southwest Airlines...What is a responable time frame to get promted and what is the starting and top pay for a supervisor????????

jack in Mchenry, Illinois said: If you work hard on the ramp at Southwest Airlines...What is a responable time frame to get promted and what is the starting and top pay for a supervisor????????

Jack, it's sort of difficult to explain but I'll try. At Southwest the ramp is a union job. The pay is on a set scale so regardless of your merits, your pay increases a certain amount each year. A ramp agent begins at a bit over $11 an hour and ends up at $26 an hour.

As far as being "promoted" to supervisor. That's not the typical progression. Typically a ramp agent with any substantial amount of seniority on the ramp is not looking to move into a supervisor position. There is very little upside in forfeiting your union membership, seniority (seniority is everything in the airline industry), and a good amount of quality of life because supervisors do not enjoy nearly the amount of work rules that agents do due to their union backing. There is a raise of about 10% on top of the regular scale, but what you lose in job security and seniority makes it a losing proposition. As backwards as it may seem, it's much more common for new hires to move into supervisor positions very early on (and it works about as well as you would expect). This happens because new hires are not very vested in their agent positions and thereby have little to lose, and also because of their infatuation with achieving a hierarchical improvement in their position and thinking they are some sort of rock star because management courted them for a supervisor position despite being brand new. Little do most know that they do it to nearly any semi-together individual who walks in the door.

Another problem is that the ramp supervisor position is one with no teeth. Most ramp sups learn early on that it's just best to make a LOT of friends on the ramp and stay out of the union reps' hair. They're also reprimanded by management if they receive any union grievances.

John in Chicago, Illinois said: Southwest is the only worthwhile airline to work ramp in. They have the best benefits, medical, flight, proffit sharing, 401k match, as well as the best pay"

Yeah but also the hardest company to get into. I tried to get in with them for anything, interviewed in person for customer service and turned away based on unsteady employment history to their liking (not even considering that i'm young still). But yeah, if you can score an interview, thats the first step and hardest step with southwest. Worth it if can make it though. And also, should have jobs in your last 10 years that show something for physical labor / hard labor / etc or they probably will not hire that person for ramp. I come from a non-physical work history and turned away within 2 minutes of the phone interview. The recruiter was reiterating over and over, asking me if I understood its not a customer-contact position and there will be no contact or communications with customers for 99.9% of the job.

jack in Mchenry, Illinois said: If you work hard on the ramp at Southwest Airlines...What is a responable time frame to get promted and what is the starting and top pay for a supervisor????????

Believe me, from what i hear, it aint worth it being a supervisor. They are non-union and dont get alot of respect from the ramp. Dont know about pay but I know it's hourly and not salary.

LArry in Orlando, Florida said: Believe me, from what i hear, it aint worth it being a supervisor. They are non-union and dont get alot of respect from the ramp. Dont know about pay but I know it's hourly and not salary.

Jetblue is growth central adding a new destination every few wks. Great benifits and starting pay that surpasses SW airlines by $2.00
401k is 6% match which is still good and free flights as well for yourself, parents, and a spouse or domestic partner or friend. 4buddu passes every quarter. geez JB is great. Still like SW though. These are the 2 best airlines in the biz

Jetblue Guy in New York, New York said: Jetblue is growth central adding a new destination every few wks. Great benifits and starting pay that surpasses SW airlines by $2.00
401k is 6% match which is still good and free flights as well for yourself, parents, and a spouse or domestic partner or friend. 4buddu passes every quarter. geez JB is great. Still like SW though. These are the 2 best airlines in the biz

Southwest acquired JetBlue in a merger months ago...

OB in Aberdeen, Maryland said: Southwest acquired JetBlue in a merger months ago...

Ha ha,.. No I think you're thinking of AirTran. JetBlue is still completely independent and a competitor of the now combined Southwest/AirTran airline.