Salary
Average Salary: $37,000
Expected Lifetime Earnings: $1,544,676
For a job that's basically about physical labor with minimal education requirements, the pay's better than you might expect—all thanks to employee unions. A baggage handler makes, on average, $37,000 per year (source), though that number can vary widely by airline and years of experience. Smaller regional airlines operating in places you can't find on the map tend to pay their handlers less. Go figure.
Baggage handlers employed full-time start out making around ten bucks per hour, but usually it's a fairly quick rise up the ladder as long as you work hard. Your salary will max out at around twenty-five bucks per hour, once you have about ten years of experience—which works out to about $52,000 annually.
What really tempts people into a life of baggage handling has less to do with the salary and more to do with the sweet benefits. Baggage handlers get a retirement plan, and dental, life, and accident insurance. To sweeten the deal, like most airline employees, baggage handlers get to fly for free on any flight (source). And they get an average of two weeks paid vacation time to take advantage of those free flights.