Disney World unfairly slammed for wages.

[Mr. Morrow]

I have no issues with my healthcare either. And I made no mention of student loans, only the tuition costs (but I should also add the associated costs of higher education to this list as well). School is too expensive in the US

I agree with you here the worst is the text books, those were highway robbery.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

I don't really get the point of this thread...Disney is not being 'slammed' in the article. The article is not an opinion piece. It simply states facts of what Florida theme park workers make as opposed to what theme park workers make in other states. They did the numbers to figure out the 8 lowest-paying jobs in America, and their numbers showed that theme park workers were number four.

What exactly is wrong with the sentence you quotes. It's true that Disney workers typically receive on-the-job training. How do you know that ALL Disney CMs go through 'tons' of training. The fact is that training has been greatly reduced in recent years.

And I made more at my high school ice cream scooping job than I did running a ride at Disney. But even if you are in management, you will typically take a gigantic paycut to go work at Disney rather than a management job at just about any other corporation.

My personal point is, why SHOULD Disney pay more when people will work for what they offer anyway?

If you don't like the possible wages or work environment, why would you work there?


It's not Disney's fault at all, and I find it humorous people try to place the blame on them, they are just running a streamlined business building shareholder value.


Jimmy Thick- 20k shares!

 

[mkt]

I agree with you here the worst is the text books, those were highway robbery.

Agreed! I avoided paying for them whenever possible. My first semester of college, like an idiot, I paid. The remaining 3 1/2 years, I'd borrow them from the library whenever possible, or offer "higher-than-the-bookstore-buyback-price" to an outgoing student.

In grad school I've been EXTREMELY lucky. For my MFA, I got away buying only a single book, and for my MA 3 of my books have had kindle versions, and I've been able to get others through "alternate means"*cough*PDF*cough

 

[s8film40]

My personal point is, why SHOULD Disney pay more when people will work for what they offer anyway?

If you don't like the possible wages or work environment, why would you work there?


It's not Disney's fault at all, and I find it humorous people try to place the blame on them, they are just running a streamlined business building shareholder value.


Jimmy Thick- 20k shares!

You have to look at it from a business perspective. The quality of your product is inherently dependent on the quality of the materials used. The same is true for labor. It isn't a good business practice to hire the cheapest you can get, instead a good business will hire the cheapest they can get that performs at the level needed for the product. If you build something with low quality (cheap) building materials you could have safety issues, customer satisfaction issues, and bad PR issues. Right now Disney pays a wage that does not afford them the luxury of selecting who they hire, this is a very dangerous business practice and as a stockholder I would be very concerned. The short term might be good but if they continue to hire based on this the product will eventually suffer.

 

[mrbghd]

Trust me. Disney is not the "lowest paying employer in Orlando." As someone pointed out that they were seasonal and making $7.35 when minimum wage was $7.25 in Florida...there are definitely employers who are paying exactly that minimum wage.

With that being said...you shouldn't go into a CM job expecting to make a living off of it! These jobs are usually designed for people who aren't supporting a family and probably aren't usually considered long term anymore, that's why there is so much emphasis on the college program. Gone are the days where you can go in as a front line CM and expect to make it to upper management one day. And gone (mostly) are the days where an uneducated man like Walt Disney can run a multi-million dollar company. Unfortunate in some cases, but true, and mostly for the better considering everybody wants accountability nowadays.

College degrees, ambition, networking, and practical know-how do go along way in this country.

Dead on accurate. It is common knowledge what they pay. Also, if a person is unhappy with their job they are free to look for another. What type of skill and/or education requirements does a CM job have?

 

[mkt]

What type of skill and/or education requirements does a CM job have?

Entry level: A pulse.

 

[Mammymouse]

There is one thing I would mention in defense of the wage rate in Florida - there is no state income tax and no local tax that come out of your paychecks like in NYC or California that drives up the living wages those states' residents earn. Just a thought.

 

[Tom]

There is one thing I would mention in defense of the wage rate in Florida - there is no state income tax and no local tax that come out of your paychecks like in NYC or California that drives up the living wages those states' residents earn. Just a thought.

Ah yes, now if only the rest of the country would go to the "Fair Tax" we'd have a head start in moving the economy back in the right direction.

 

[Mr. Morrow]

Agreed! I avoided paying for them whenever possible. My first semester of college, like an idiot, I paid. The remaining 3 1/2 years, I'd borrow them from the library whenever possible, or offer "higher-than-the-bookstore-buyback-price" to an outgoing student.

In grad school I've been EXTREMELY lucky. For my MFA, I got away buying only a single book, and for my MA 3 of my books have had kindle versions, and I've been able to get others through "alternate means"*cough*PDF*cough

The worst is when I had a US history book that was $400 that we were told we must have. We never used it once and I got $75 for the buy back.

 

[stlbobby]

My personal point is, why SHOULD Disney pay more when people will work for what they offer anyway?

If you don't like the possible wages or work environment, why would you work there?


It's not Disney's fault at all, and I find it humorous people try to place the blame on them, they are just running a streamlined business building shareholder value.


Jimmy Thick- 20k shares!

I posted the following at the end of this same type of discussion a few pages back.

Just to be clear I wasn't stating that Disney should pay more out of a moral need. I totally understand it is a business and it is about making money. I was advocating investing in the workforce to pay dividends down the road. I recognize this would cost the company initially, but in the coming years it would be profitable through lower turnover, better talent providing better work, and a better guest experience.

It is a long-term strategy.

This is only a snipet of what was said, but I think there is a business argument to be made for paying the workers a higher wage. I think this is especially true at WDW where the CM's are so much a part of the experience and being able to pick and choose and retain the best for a longer term would benefit the company down the road.

Again I'm not advocating Disney raise wages out of a socialistic imperative, but in an effort to improve the product and generate even more revenue.

It's a short-term bottom line expense versus long-term building the brand view.

As an investor would you understand and accept the raises if it were laid out to you this way?

 

[Mammymouse]

Not all union representation is bad - my husband belongs to the pipefitters - and the union debate will go on forever, but take it from someone who comes from a state that is thick with unions - absolute power corrupts. Because of the unions blatant powerful relationship with our legislature in my state their "demands and entitlements" have destroyed the state. We have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, individual taxes (real estate, income, business, etc.) that are the highest in the country, and we are ranked almost last - 49th out of 50 - in the country for having a favorable business environment. And oh yeah, it is the smallest state in the union and was the birthplace of the industrial revolution - but there are no jobs left except healthcare or state and local government, which are union.
Sorry I had to rant but this whole economy thing going on is making me nuts. In over 40 years of being in small business and rental properties I've never seen anything like the last 4 years. And it is definitely putting a big damper on my one enjoyment - going to my beloved Disneyworld.

 

[Mammymouse]

Sorry- I left out the name of the state - it is Rhode Island.

 

[Mr Bill]

Ah yes, now if only the rest of the country would go to the "Fair Tax" we'd have a head start in moving the economy back in the right direction.

By making lower income families spend a disproportionately higher percentage of their income on taxes than higher income families?

 

[RobGraves]

By making lower income families spend a disproportionately higher percentage of their income on taxes than higher income families?

shhhh you're using reason and logic....

 

[Mr. Morrow]

shhhh you're using reason and logic....

Why does it make sense?

When Regan cut takes he actually increased revenue to the Federal government. The only way out of this mess is to control spending and cut taxes for everyone.

 

[raven]

Here's the part about "pay the cast a living wage" that most people forget: prices for visiting would have to go up. To get to the point where the wage is actually livable for a single w/o dependents (let alone a dependent or two), probably by a lot.

In other words, a good chunk of the people visiting WDW today for their "once in a lifetime trip" would be priced out of this brave new world tomorrow. Those who come annually might have to cut back to once every few years. And so on.

That's a possible solution---after all, places like Discovery Cove work---but in that hypothetical universe, we would have a very different World than the one we have now. First, fewer people would visit, so it would be smaller. Four parks? Probably not.

Here's an example of the company spending money where is doesn't really need it: Do they really need to be adding more and more DVC's? Yes, they are still planning more for WDW. That isn't something that really needs attention right now at WDW but they are pushing ahead anyways. Your ticket prices going up reflects these additions. Raising wages has been the least concern for them.

I have found that most of the disgruntled CM's are the ones that have failed to take up the opportunities within the company, as there is always opportunities to network and move into various roles within the company, but instead they decide to stay in the same position.

You are generalizing now. That can't be any more wrong in my case and cases of some fellow CMs of mine. I became a trainer, a Facilitator and now they are pushing me to become a coordinator but I won't take it. Why? Because it's their way of keeping me in the department when I want to move out. I tried to move 3 times but suddenly, without doing anything wrong, I was given a reprimand so I couldn't move. Did I deserve it? No. It's just a trick that management uses on the people they like to keep them from moving out of the department. Quiting and starting over isn't an option since I have 7 years of service.

No one is forcing anyone to work at Disney, people CHOOSE to work at Disney, only if you get lucky for Disney to actually hire you.

Disney will hire anyone. No "luck" needed, just show up at casting. It's a shame.

If people know working for Disney is such a negative experience, why would anyone work there?

Nope, you can't blame Disney on this, the work environment is all about the employees who want more than they deserve.

There are a lot of CMs at WDW who moved there from other parts of the company like I did (The Disney Store). I loved working for the stores and when ours was shut down, they took a small handful of other CMs to work at another store. We weren't given the oportunity to bid for those spots. Just dropped off the payroll altogether.

So I moved to FL and within the 90 period of my last Disney job I was able to get hired here to keep my "hire date" seniority. I have 7 years in the company and to get retirement you only have to work 20 years so it's worth staying on in some capacity.

Here's another issue about wages that's only been touched on in this thread. The CP's are paid very little. Because of this, Disney reserves them roles in certain desireable possitions around the company. I've tried 3 times to transfer to PhotoPass only to be told that it was currently full due to CP assignments. The company abuses this staffing rule way too much in many areas.

Another staffing issue, and I know I will probably get flammed for it: Hatians. I'm not prejudice by any means but the company pushes that envelope with the special treatment they receive. How? Hatians are partially funded by the government. Disney only pays a % of their wages and fills up a lot of areas with them. Most of them have no interest in working for the company anyway and just want to be paid. The most difficult part of it is that they cannot be fired. I'm not stretching the truth when I say that every shift I work I see them sleeping on the job, talking on their cell phones or simply taking unauthorized breaks when they should be working. It would be solved easily if the company were to discipline them like they do the rest of their CMS but they don't. Often they ignor them altogether and pretend they don't see what they are doing. It's their way of getting around the problem of confrontation. Now say myself or other non-Hatian cast members do the same thing? We'd be fired or reprimanded on the spot. This, as you can probably tell, puts great strain on working with them and trust in management itself.

I trained a Hatian man last week and he simply didn't want to be there. On his first day alone he slept for 5 hours in a breakroom and when management found him they smply told him to go back to work. He skipped out early one shift and no one could find him until he clocked out. This was all his first week on the job but they are "working with him" and he's getting one-on-one training. If I had tried that I would've been thrown out immediately. It would be permisible if the kid had special needs issues but he's simply lazy and doesn't want to be there but they insist on keeping him on.

Until the day we are all treated as equals then it will continue to happen. That's another thing the union is fighting for.

 

[mkt]

Why does it make sense?

When Regan cut takes he actually increased revenue to the Federal government. The only way out of this mess is to control spending and cut taxes for everyone.

And increased the federal debt more than any other president until the point.

The Reagan argument is a double edged sword.

 

[Mr. Morrow]

And increased the federal debt more than any other president until the point.

The Reagan argument is a double edged sword.

Never been done more than in the past year. If you don't want to cut taxes stop the crazy spending.

 

[RobGraves]

Never been done more than in the past year. If you don't want to cut taxes stop the crazy spending.

ok, so lets cut the BULK of our spending... lets go for the biggest... Defense and military spending... lets move out of all of our bases overseas, move out of Iraq and Afghanistan and reduce our military spending.

maybe end social security too... grandma can eat cat food...

 

[Mr Bill]

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