I’m not sure whether to be impressed or dismayed by United’s significant reward that it is even necessary … United offers up to 13 hours of wages for vaccinationUnited Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) reached an agreement this week on vaccinations for pilots:
How much money are we talking about? United’s pilot pay scale is $ 352 an hour, so some pilots could charge up to $ 4,600 for vaccination (to be clear, that’s the absolute highest pay for the largest aircraft and seniority, as well as the most pilots earn significantly less). The union leader has stated that ALPA is focusing on “encouraging maximum voluntary participation rather than such a mandate” that requires pilots to be vaccinated. For a context:
United pilots could get thousands of dollars for the vaccination Vaccine uptake in the industry is surprisingly lowYou would think (hope?) That airline employees would be among the first to get vaccinated. Vaccines allow our lives to resume, and the aviation industry in particular relies on widespread vaccination (just look at the current border restrictions). What surprises me is that the data we’ve seen actually suggests that airline employees in the US are only being vaccinated at a slightly higher rate than the population average. For example, a few weeks ago the CEO of Delta boasted that more than 60% of Delta employees received at least one dose of vaccine, which was barely above the adult population average. I heard the numbers are similar for other airlines. I can understand the concept of incentivizing vaccinations early on when it took some effort to get an appointment. But at this point you can get vaccinated just about anywhere, so I wonder how many incentives like this will move the needle. I would think most people fit into one of two camps when it comes to their vaccination philosophy:
Is United relying on there to be a significant number of pilots who have an opinion somewhere between the two? I recognize that some people are in the “wait and see” camp when it comes to getting vaccinated, but realistically we’d be talking for years and years and again that just seems like a bad risk calculation. Or does United hope that unvaccinated pilots fall into the category “I don’t want to get a microchip, but 13 hours of wages are 13 hours of wages”? Will this incentive lead to reluctant pilots being vaccinated? Bottom lineUnited Airlines doesn’t prescribe vaccines to employees, but rather provides the greatest incentive we’ve seen from an airline (at least to my knowledge). United is offering pilots up to 13 hours of vaccination wages, which could translate into thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, other United employees who interact much more with customers are getting very little. What do you think of United Airlines’ vaccination incentive for pilots? Via https://globalconnekt.com/united-gives-pilots-a-huge-incentive-to-vaccinate/
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