A former United Airlines flight attendant is suing the Chicago-based carrier because cabin crew do not get paid for boarding, deplaning, and other ground time spent on the ground, including for critical safety-related work.
Ava Lawrey worked for United Airlines for just two years, between July 2023 and July 2025, but she is now seeking to hold the carrier to account for what she alleges is forcing her to ‘work for free’ in a new class action lawsuit.
Based out of Newark Liberty Airport during her short tenure with United, Lawrey has filed her lawsuit in a New Jersey district court, claiming the airline breached the State’s wage and hour laws that require companies to pay their employees for all hours they are required to be at work.
Traditionally, US airlines have only paid flight attendants ‘flight pay,’ which starts from the moment the aircraft pushes back from the gate to the moment the aircraft door is opened at its destination.
As a result, Lawry says she regularly worked without pay, doing essential activities, such as:
- A mandatory requirement to arrive at the airport one hour before a flight.
- Completing pre-flight documentation and checking safety equipment.
- Boarding passengers and providing customer service to passengers.
- Assisting passengers during deplaning and clearing immigration and customs.
Lawry says she would also regularly find herself waiting for hours on the ground between flights, waiting to board the next plane. During this time, she was in uniform and at work, but was never compensated for this time.
The lawsuit alleges that United’s “illegal and improper wage practices have deprived Flight Attendants of millions of dollars in wages and overtime compensation.”
As a new hire flight attendant, Lawry would likely have felt the effects of only being paid for actual flight time, more than veteran crew who work fewer flights but with more flight time.
Lawry says that on numerous occasions, she would work for six days in a row, racking up 72 hours of work, but only being paid for 48 hours, because she was working multiple short flights.
As part of ongoing contract negotiations, United Airlines has offered to start paying flight attendants for boarding time – a practice that has already been implemented at several other US carriers, including American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Delta, and SkyWest.
Boarding pay is generally offered at half the normal flying pay rate and does not include any other time spent on the ground.
In July, flight attendants resoundingly rejected a tentative contract, despite promises that the ‘industry-leading’ deal would boost wages with an immediate pay rise of 26.9% on average.
The United Airlines flight attendant union is still trying to get to the bottom of exactly why the tentative agreement proved so unpopular, although there are suspicions that crew members were unhappy with the union dropping demands for ‘ground duty pay’, which would have compensated members for all the time they are at work but not flying.
There are, however, pros and cons to offering ‘ground duty pay.’
For newer flight attendants, ground duty pay would be a better way of compensating them as they spend more time working multiple shorter flights, which means they spend more time on the ground, boarding, deplaning, waiting between flights, and doing other admin tasks.
But flying pay is currently inflated to reflect the fact that crew members don’t get paid on the ground, so veteran flight attendants who primarily work fewer flights that are longer in duration, won’t be happy with the flying pay rate being slashed to fund ground duty pay.
Lawry’s lawsuit is similar to a legal challenge by a current Southwest Airlines flight attendant based in Colorado who is suing the carrier for not offering boarding pay.
Matthew Lanclos, a veteran crew member who has worked for Southwest Airlines for more than 20 years, filed his lawsuit in February, and legal wrangling in the case is still ongoing.
The Lanclos lawsuit is interesting in that it challenges a labor agreement voted on by Southwest’s flight attendants, which maintained the status quo by only paying flight attendants for flight time and not time spent on the ground.
Both Southwest Airlines and United Airlines are likely to argue that collective bargaining agreements, as well as the Railway Labor Act and federal aviation rules, supersede state laws, and, as such, they are not required to abide by local wage and hour laws.
Lawry’s lawsuit has been filed in the New Jersey district court under case number: 2:25-cv-15624.
Ha, sounds like someone didn’t understand the contract they signed, the terms of which were already negotiated by the AFA. Their hourly flight pay includes compensation for all of their required pre-flight duties but no one wants to talk about that out loud.
Bingo.