How much per diem can you make?

What is a per diem? Per Diem means per day or per each day. A per diem is an amount of allowance a company provides for an individual to cover the cost of living away from home. Employees, who travel for their work, will either have a per diem that a company will pay per day or are allowed to expense their trip. As a flight attendant, because the hotel is paid for already by the company, a per diem is given.

The per diem is a set amount per hour or per day. For pilots and flight attendants, a per diem is an hourly allowance that is calculated and then claimed at the end of each month and paid to the employees in the middle of each month.

Most per diems are around $1.50 to $2.00 an hour and for international flights, it is usually more. Most flight attendants and pilots are usually away from base anywhere from 150 to 400 hours each month. When you multiply for example 400 hours by $1.50 you get $600 per diem for that month. This makes your paycheck at the middle of the month more than the paycheck at the end of the month. When you calculate the per day per diem, 24 hours by $1.50 you get $36 per day. Most pilots and flight attendants can eat out for less than their per diems per day, especially if they have brought some food from home. Most people don’t consider the per diem as a meal allowance but instead as their monthly salary.