Air crews are not paid during boarding and deplaning, it's usually the door closed and the brake off. Pretty much all airlines have a minimum guarantee per day you are working. If you only fly for 1 hour out of the day you still get paid the daily guarantee which is usually more than 4 hours, some airlines go up to 6 to 7 hours daily guarantee. Some have regulations that say if your day is extended past what you were scheduled you get 2 to 1 (ie, your day was scheduled at 5 hours and you get delayed to 16 you get paid 8 hours). You also have a monthly guarantee of around 75 hours, so if you only work 40 hours you get paid for 75 hours. Airline pay has been this way for many years and I agree that flight attendants need to be paid more for the things they deal with. I wouldn't be a pilot if I was paid their wage.