Oliver Wells
Southwest Airlines is facing a $100 million class action lawsuit by its baggage and cargo handlers in the state of New York for failing to pay their workers on time. New York labor law stipulates that manual laborers must be paid weekly, while Southwest Airlines has been paying bimonthly, causing financial strain for the low-wage workers living paycheck to paycheck. The workers are also seeking prompt payment under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which regulates pay and recordkeeping for workers.
78% of workers in the US live paycheck to paycheck, according to a 2023 survey by Payroll.org. Baggage handlers in the US earn an average of roughly $40,000 a year, or about $17/hour.
While workers struggle to survive between pay periods, monopolies benefit from withholding pay as long as possible. Having more capital on hand for a longer period of time allows monopolies to invest more money as well as receive interest from money sitting in bank accounts. Southwest Airlines, the fourth largest aviation monopoly in the US, reported a record $6.9 billion in revenue in its third quarter in 2024.
