Fired for Admitting You Need Food Stamps?

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-09-09 15:00:00 UTC
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The flight attendant who recently decided to leave his job via airplane escape slide (beers in hand) captivated the public, sparking T-shirts and many a day-dream by people dissatisfied with their work. But there's more to this story than a dramatic exit. While Steven Slater's slide to freedom was immediately provoked by a belligerent passenger, flight attendants have to deal with frustrating passengers on top of insultingly low pay. Shhh: don't tell anybody though. Because admitting that you get paid poverty wages could get you canned.

As Josie Raymond reports at Poverty in America, Kirsten Arianejad was interviewed on T.V. saying that her full-time job as a flight attendant for Compass Airlines paid so poorly, she has been forced to resort to food stamps. Compass Airlines apparently doesn't feel that their wages are the problem: just making them public is. So, angry at Arianejad for airing its dirty laundry, the airline fired her.

The starting salary for a flight attendant is generally not more than $15,000 a year, well within the range of qualifying for food assistance. This piddling pay for a job that requires training and strong interpersonal skills for dealing with irritating customers without resorting to the escape slide just might have something to do with the fact that most flight attendants are women, and female-dominated industries often get the short end of the stick. At least they don't have official weight standards attendant must meet anymore. Progress?

You can send a message to Compass and other airlines that it's not acceptable to fire somebody for admitting that they use food stamps. If they want to avoid bad publicity, then they should pay their employees a living wage.

Photo credit: davitydave

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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