News Disney World Cast Member unions to begin week of negotiations for wage increases, healthcare costs and more

[peter11435]

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Unemployment Rate in Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL (MSA)

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate in Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL (MSA) (ORLA712URN) from Jan 1990 to Jul 2024 about Orlando, FL, unemployment, rate, and USA.

fred.stlouisfed.org

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Orlando Leads Nation in Job Growth Four Years in a Row

The Orlando region is No. 1 in the nation for job growth for the fourth consecutive year.

news.orlando.org

I beg to differ.

That doesn’t mean what you think it means.

 

[Lilofan]

And you are correct. That is a huge reason they don’t see a need to increase pay. They know these people can’t go elsewhere and make more.

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

 

[lazyboy97o]

Which leads to the question… if there aren’t better paying jobs available in the market what’s the motivation for Disney to pay more?

(Other than altruism)

I’ve looked at a few fields in Orlando and Disney is already competitive, they pay as much or more than restaurants, call centers, warehouses, hotels, etc that are competing for the same employees. At the $20 a hour they are offering ($42k) they pay nearly as much as starting pay for police ($51k), teachers ($50k), and other professions that require significantly more training and /or risk.

If the union gets their way, and Disney ends up paying something like $25 an hour (a living wage), who in their right mind would become a cop or a teacher when they could make the same selling churros? They won’t, which means those position now have to raise their wages to attract applicants, which means more inflation, which means increased costs on everything… and the newly acquired $25 isn’t a living wage anymore.

It’s an endless cycle, those working lower skill jobs will always struggle to pay the bills because they will always be the lowest paid jobs, as they make more so does everyone else (although usually a lower increase), the push for $15 seemed like a life changing increase just a couple years ago, ends up it has had little to no effect because prices increased everywhere along with it.

What’s truly scary in this scenario is fixed incomes, if you are retired this inflation is going to devalue your savings, guess that’s a positive for Disney because it means more formerly retired people will look to Disney for a job because they will need one.

Why was the purchasing power of such jobs able to be greater in the past? Why is it able to be greater in other places? Why should we keep driving down the value of jobs like teachers and police?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

The union is not asking for $25. The union is asking for an increase to $20 over the next three years.

And you are correct. That is a huge reason they don’t see a need to increase pay. They know these people can’t go elsewhere and make more.

It’s mind boggling to me the impasse is whether CMs should make $20 an hour in 3 years vs $20 an hour in 5 years.

It’s also one of the primary reasons I’m looking at Orlando for retirement, sell my house here, use it to buy a house in cash there, and make $20 an hour to sell churros 2-3 days a week… it’ll get me out of the house and add a grand a month to my retirement funds, sounds like a decent retirement.

 

[peter11435]

Winner winner, chicken dinner!

Wait a minute… weren’t you the one arguing that they didn’t need to pay more because they all had access to other opportunities where they could get paid more?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Why was the purchasing power of such jobs able to be greater in the past? Why is it able to be greater in other places? Why should we keep driving down the value of jobs like teachers and police?

I don’t think it was, when I started out (late 80s) I made $3.80 an hour and an apartment started at a little over $400, I had to work a little over 100 hours a month to cover my rent. Today CMs make $15 an hour and a quick search of apartments.com shows an apartment in Orlando starts at about $1600, or just over 100 hours to cover.

In the late 80s gas was about 90 cents a gallon, one hour of work bought me a little over 4 gallons of gas, gas in Orlando is $3 today, one hour of work at Disney buys a CM about 5 gallons of gas. Prices are higher, pay is higher, but overall it’s pretty much a wash compared to when I was in my teens/early 20s.

 

[Lilofan]

Wait a minute… weren’t you the one arguing that they didn’t need to pay more because they all had access to other opportunities where they could get paid more?

Don't put words in my mouth. I never said they did not need to pay more, merely that can work OT , second job and or pursue promotional opportunities . Just like you falsely say hating CMs and the sort.

 

[Lilofan]

It’s mind boggling to me the impasse is whether CMs should make $20 an hour in 3 years vs $20 an hour in 5 years.

It’s also one of the primary reasons I’m looking at Orlando for retirement, sell my house here, use it to buy a house in cash there, and make $20 an hour to sell churros 2-3 days a week… it’ll get me out of the house and add a grand a month to my retirement funds, sounds like a decent retirement.

Just look into trying to find an insurer that will cover your future FL home. That's another nightmare that some have to deal with.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Just look into trying to find an insurer that will cover your future FL home. That's another nightmare that some have to deal with.

That is a major concern, I’ve had a couple people tell me to plan on $1000 a month for insurance alone, depending on where I buy. That’s insane.

 

[Touchdown]

Why buy when you can rent? Renters insurance is so much cheaper.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

who in their right mind would become a cop or a teacher when they could make the same selling churros?

Teachers are extremely underpaid. Why does anyone choose to get a college degree to become a teacher? It already makes no financial sense.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Why buy when you can rent? Renters insurance is so much cheaper.

Renting is forever though, it took me 20 years but my house is paid off so it only costs me a couple hundred a month in insurance, beats the heck out of $1600 in rent plus rental insurance.

20 years from now it’ll probably be $3500 rent plus rental insurance and I’ll still only be paying a couple hundred a month in insurance.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Teachers are extremely underpaid. Why does anyone choose to get a college degree to become a teacher? It already makes no financial sense.

100% agree, in the argument for higher pay I’d put teachers at #1. I wouldn’t be a teacher for twice their current pay, the kids are fine, it’s the crazy parents I couldn’t deal with.

 

[eliza61nyc]

You are (again) missing the point. I’m not talking about individual work ethic and opportunities. Obviously there are opportunities, but they only work for a very small fraction of the people we are talking about. The business model in central Florida requires large segments of the population to be forced into poverty and government subsidization.

But again at some point the individual responsibility HAS to kick in. I absolutely know it's hard, you stay at a company 10, 15, 20 years that you KNOW will not allow you to live a decent life???

 

[eliza61nyc]

Just look into trying to find an insurer that will cover your future FL home. That's another nightmare that some have to deal with.

That's what keeping me from pulling the plug and moving to Florida. "Sighs"

 

[eliza61nyc]

Anybody know what the pay rate is over at universal and SeaWorld?

 

[Lilofan]

But again at some point the individual responsibility HAS to kick in. I absolutely know it's hard, you stay at a company 10, 15, 20 years that you KNOW will not allow you to live a decent life???

I can envision frustration in disgruntled cast that have done the same job ( ie ride operator ) for 15,25,30 years. If they quit or get fired and apply and work for Universal , their rate of pay will not be honored. They are treated as a new staff member earning entry level pay. Who would want to do that ?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I don’t think it was, when I started out (late 80s) I made $3.80 an hour and an apartment started at a little over $400, I had to work a little over 100 hours a month to cover my rent. Today CMs make $15 an hour and a quick search of apartments.com shows an apartment in Orlando starts at about $1600, or just over 100 hours to cover.

In the late 80s gas was about 90 cents a gallon, one hour of work bought me a little over 4 gallons of gas, gas in Orlando is $3 today, one hour of work at Disney buys a CM about 5 gallons of gas. Prices are higher, pay is higher, but overall it’s pretty much a wash compared to when I was in my teens/early 20s.

You were previously saying that housing is the big issue that needs to be addressed. Now you’re saying housing is not an issue. Which is it?

 

[fngoofy]

Why aren’t they getting paid more then? Again market 101. Corporations are soulless and exist only to increase shareholder value. It is in their best interest to pay as little for their employees as they can. Throw away understaffing, that’s on customers for continuing to tolerate that, but why is it that so many employees tolerate a wage that does not support them? Unemployment is at record lows, there quite simply is a better paying job available and if enough people left Disney would raise the wages, but that’s not happening. Why exactly is that and whose fault is that?

Tell me you know nothing about business without saying you you know nothing about business.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

You were previously saying that housing is the big issue that needs to be addressed. Now you’re saying housing is not an issue. Which is it?

Affordable housing has always been an issue, when I was starting out 100+ of my 160 monthly work hours went solely to housing, plus another 25 hours going to taxes, leaving about 35 hours of income (roughly $150 a month in the late 80s) to pay utilities, fill up the car, buy food, and pay for everything else, that’s still true today, wouldn’t you call that an issue?

I solved it by having roommates but the argument now is that anyone that works a full time job should be paid a living wage and able to survive on their own, with the new expectation it just compounds the existing housing issue.