Originally Posted by Jenbel

To quibble stats and be very pedantic - depends on the distribution around the mean as to how many lie above and below the mean - that's why median is a better average to use. Since we have a minimum wage in the UK, it must be a skewed distribution and not a normal distribution.

Apart from that you make a very good point. Other points which occurs is if allowances are not that important, and shouldn't be counted in the renumeration package of CC, why have unions fought tooth and nail to defend them previously? And is the absenteeism rate amongst cabin crew so high that they would not expect to receive a large proportion of their expenses as a result of the amount of time they are off sick and unable to fly?