(Bloomberg) -- Delta Air Lines Inc. will begin paying its flight attendants for their work beginning during the boarding process, a shift from the industry standard in which their hours begin only when the aircraft doors close.

The change will begin on June 2 and include a boarding window increase to 40 minutes, Delta said in a memo. Flight attendants will be paid beginning at their scheduled boarding window for all flights, with compensation starting at 50% of a steward’s hourly rate. Delta Association of Flight Attendants, a unionizing effort for the airline’s stewards, reported the change on Monday night.

The change comes following pay increases set to take effect May 1. Kristen Manion Taylor, Delta’s senior Vice President for in flight service, said in the memo that the boarding-time pay “further recognizes how important your role is on board to ensuring a welcoming, safe and on-time start to each flight and for each customer.”

In comments on an Instagram post by the advocacy group @PayMeForBoarding, workers lobbied for the full hourly rate rather than half-pay, and urged other airlines to follow suit.

A post shared by PayMeForBoarding (@paymeforboarding)

Delta is the only major airline whose attendants are not unionized. Delta AFA plans to use this change as further proof of the need for its organizing efforts. A Change.org petition asking that flight attendants across the industry be paid during boarding time has more than 160,000 signatures. Currently, most flight attendants are paid per flight hour.

“This new policy is the direct result of our organizing—and a desperate attempt to prevent their other new boarding policy (D+40) from creating the kind of anger that it deserves,” Delta AFA said in a statement. 

Domenica Rohrborn, an organizer behind Pay Me For Boarding, commended Delta for the change and said she hoped other airlines followed suit.

“Really, we should be paid 100% of our hourly rate for this time since we are 100% present and working, and are 100% able to be terminated,” she said. “A lot of flight attendants are worried that by being compensated for boarding, something else will be taken away. My hope this forward movement of labor rights will show this is not the case, and that our time is valuable and worth fighting for.”

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.