There was a thread not to long ago about what EK FA's make and in fact they get far more take home pay at the end of the day then their counterparts at US carriers, especially when adding their benefits such as free accomodation, that being said they have an "early" retirement age and other items such as taxes do not exist which gives EK a far greater advantage. So while a starting EK flight attendant makes $30k and gets free housing and health care (provided directly by EK) the cost to Ek is (for example) $36k per year, while a similar FA at DL will end up "costing" $48k to DL. Ground staff are obviously much cheaper and that is where the greatest difference lies.