tissandtully
Well-Known Member
Do you have a source for this data? Florida is generally less expensive to live due to no state income tax. I've lived here a while and though I don't rent anymore, it didn't seem all that outrageous when I was.
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Cast Member Pay
- Thread starter ParentsOf4
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Do you have a source for this data? Florida is generally less expensive to live due to no state income tax. I've lived here a while and though I don't rent anymore, it didn't seem all that outrageous when I was.
G00fyDad
Well-Known Member
I've lived there as well, and now coming from a state (Indiana) that has the average worker making $8 or $9 per hour and barely cutting it, I can tell you that the cost of living in Florida is too high for $9/hr. It was a shock to us when we moved there from Indiana back then to see how much more everything was. When we moved back up to Indiana it was such a relief to my parents to see, what they considered to be, normal pricing compared to the earnings again.
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
My husband works in engineering and looked at a job at WDW once many years ago. They just don't pay enough there even for engineering types. Similar positions there make a fraction of what he makes in Houston which typically carries the highest pay for his profession. If I recall, when he told me how much the job at WDW was going to pay I laughed. It was really obscenely low.
This I believe. I know a server in the MK and, believe me, he makes a decent living. In talking with him a few years back he told me he had a friend who also was a server in a different MK restaurant who cleared 6-digits the previous year. Of course, the friend had to work a lot of extra shifts to do it but it was possible. That's pretty remarkable considering their hourly wage. You know?
Jim Chandler
Well-Known Member
I know many older folks work part time for a little spending money, they love Disney and the ability to help family get into the parks free but even that I told is less than it used to be. Also many work there on internships from colleges. They work in the hotels for istance as they plana career in hospitality having Disney on your résumé is priceless after you graduate. Just like any other company I'm sure there are those who wish to work there to make a living and go through exactly what many of us did in our careers hoping for that promotion and raises.
While it is interesting to know what the average pay was for a CM 30 years ago... a more telling question would be what was the average cost to Disney for a CM 30 year ago vs today. What many people don't realize is that increases in government taxes, in insurance costs and other items the employee never sees have risen more than you would expect. Often a worker that makes under 50,000 a year costs the company more than $100,000 a year because of all the added on costs the employee never sees. When you realize that the company was willing to pay that greater amount, the reality is the company doesn't care if the money goes to the employee or the government it is gone... wouldn't it be nice if companies could make the payments to the employees and not bother with any of the insanely stupid add-ons.
bethymouse
Well-Known Member
They all get paid too little IMHO considering the billion dollar industry that DISNEY is.
DfromATX
Well-Known Member
They all get paid too little IMHO considering the billion dollar industry that DISNEY is.
And it seems like it is an honor to work there. (Right? At least to me it does.
) And, like @Jim Chandler said above having it on their resume being priceless.
graphite1326
Well-Known Member
The only people that gets paid well are the ones in air conditioned rooms sitting on their butts all day
I'm in school so I'm treating the job as a hobby, however, I know people who are working at that rate and trying to make a living from it. IDK how they do it. I know a girl who depends on Disney to make a living and she's a part-time cast member.. been trying to get 'promoted' to full time for quite a while already.
These days it's not just Disney. My son, a college grad, has been working at the same place (large grocery chain) for 5 or 6 years. He makes just above minimum and is begging for full time.
All Disney All The Time
Well-Known Member
The wife is a nurse practitioner and I'm a nuclear medicine technologist.
RedDad
Smitty Werben JagerManJensen
I've also looked into an engineering job at WDW before, and while I wouldn't call it obscenely low (for someone with a PE it's about what most engineers would make in Orlando working at a typical design firm), it would have been a step down pay wise. But, you get to see all the MAGIC, so I guess that would make up for it...
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
I've also looked into an engineering job at WDW before, and while I wouldn't call it obscenely low (for someone with a PE it's about what most engineers would make in Orlando working at a typical design firm), it would have been a step down pay wise. But, you get to see all the MAGIC, so I guess that would make up for it...
Like I said, it was many years ago. We were living in Louisiana at the time. From there the job at WDW was a step down. We've been in Texas for 6 years now. When we moved here the husband almost doubled his pay. In 6 years that's increased a bit, too. So, moving to Central Florida would be a step down from half the wage my old man currently makes. You can't eat Magic. LOL!
They all get paid too little IMHO considering the billion dollar industry that DISNEY is.
But in the end, every person working there is free to use what skills they have to get a better job with more pay somewhere else. If you can find one person that has no prospects beyond their job at Disney I would be surprised. How much money the company makes doesn't matter in the least to the employee so long as the company is able to continue making good on the pay checks. No where is it written that employees are entitled to pay based on the profitability of the company they work for, nor should it ever be that way. Is there something stopping those employees from purchasing shares of Disney?
RedDad
Smitty Werben JagerManJensen
Houston seems to be one of the hot markets right now for engineering, but I'm pretty sure my wife would leave me if I attempted to move her further from her happy place!
draybook
Well-Known Member
No, but some of the folks on this board have been sniffing the Hell out of it!!!
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
h
I hear ya. Believe me, Houston isn't our first choice of geography. We have no intention of being here forever. For now the opportunity to see & do more, to take our boys on great adventures is an acceptable trade-off. Who knows when or if that'll tip in another direction.
I don't know that I'd ever want to be frontline cast at WDW no matter the pay. I wouldn't have the patience and I'm sure I'd kill the magic for someone. The low pay would have to make it a secondary income, not primary.
I hear ya. Believe me, Houston isn't our first choice of geography. We have no intention of being here forever. For now the opportunity to see & do more, to take our boys on great adventures is an acceptable trade-off. Who knows when or if that'll tip in another direction.
I don't know that I'd ever want to be frontline cast at WDW no matter the pay. I wouldn't have the patience and I'm sure I'd kill the magic for someone. The low pay would have to make it a secondary income, not primary.
jwutony16
Active Member
When I worked there in 2003 I was paid 6 dollars an hour. I had to pay 60 dollars a week at Vista Way and you were able to charge your lunches to your cast id. So you figure you eat a meal every shift you work, sometimes I owed disney money. You do not work there to make money, you go to make magic. ( and meet tons of woman, my god it was the best)
DfromATX
Well-Known Member
h
I hear ya. Believe me, Houston isn't our first choice of geography. We have no intention of being here forever. For now the opportunity to see & do more, to take our boys on great adventures is an acceptable trade-off. Who knows when or if that'll tip in another direction.
quote]
Small world...I was born and raised in Houston, but I've been in Austin 20 years last summer. My-oh-my has Houston changed since I left! My husband's office (also engineering) doesn't have much work right now and there is talk about sending the employees to other offices, one being in Houston. We are praying that never happens cause we don't wanna leave Austin! Either way, I'm a Texas girl, so I'd never move out of the state anyway.
Jim Chandler
Well-Known Member
Right now the difference in COL is 3% higher in orlando if coming from Houston. However Orlando is 37% cheaper than LA. Also if you live outside of Orlando Houston becomes more equal and LA becomes even more expensive
Nothing but their low rate of pay......