News Several character meet and greets to be cut at Walt Disney World as labor shortage continues

[CaptainAmerica]

There are two intractable economic pressures Disney themselves can’t easily solve: nationwide shifts in labor motivations and statewide cost of living explosion.

Across the country, there has yet to be a complete acceptance in a shift of the workforce. A lot of people died or became permanently disabled in the last 2 years. A lot of people who bore witness to this may have chosen to retire early. Maybe others have permanently left the workforce or changed their jobs to better care for someone affected by covid. New jobs were also created over the last two years. Say what you will about working for amazon fulfillment, one of the more obvious benefits of working there over a role in front-facing customer service is that you are no longer are forced to deal with increasingly miserable psychos and wannabe viral stars harassing and recording you at your job. The amount of money Disney would have to pay to overcome that kind of benefit can change entire economic motivations of an activity like a character meet and greet. If you’re attractive enough to be a face character for Disney, there’s even a small chance you can spin that into a Patreon or slightly spicier platform. Make all of your own money and set your own hours.

In Florida under governor DeSantis, the state has become one of the most inhospitable places to live for wage earners. Miami is now the most unaffordable place to live in the country. There is pretty much no way one can be a member of the unskilled labor force in an city in Florida without having unfettered access to a car, a large expense when you make $30k a year. Meanwhile, a pressure on this increase in CoL comes in part from a lot of people immigrating into Florida not working jobs that require Florida residency; they’re all email jobs, crypto scammers, aspiring lifestyle vloggers, etc. Disney could solve these problems by making earnest inroads with affordable housing on the perimeter of their real estate, but seeing the outright scam they are running with college program housing nowadays, i can’t see that happening.

You're overthinking it, mate.

Video games, marijuana, and ubiquitous ography (in 4K!)

 

[fgmnt]

You make some good points. All issues a lot of expensive places are dealing with (the Miami point) California and New York have similar problems…remote work is a great alternative and to be frank being forward facing should have some kind of incentive attached to it vs working from your living room in Montana.

The key factor at hand is that the working class, people working full time but under median income, have no reason to immigrate to Florida from another state like they might have 10-20 years ago. If you already live in New York City and are securely housed, the $2-3k in income tax benefits you would receive moving to Florida would get wiped away by increased costs in transportation, and you can’t really mitigate that with differences in the cost of housing and food anymore. The outward benefits of taking a FAANG salary from the Bay Area to Florida are larger and more obvious, but it’s not like someone is going to be moonlighting in a Goofy costume in Animal Kingdom on top of their $250k+ job with Google.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

The key factor at hand is that the working class, people working full time but under median income, have no reason to immigrate to Florida from another state like they might have 10-20 years ago. If you already live in New York City and are securely housed, the $2-3k in income tax benefits you would receive moving to Florida would get wiped away by increased costs in transportation, and you can’t really mitigate that with differences in the cost of housing and food anymore. The outward benefits of taking a FAANG salary from the Bay Area to Florida are larger and more obvious, but it’s not like someone is going to be moonlighting in a Goofy costume in Animal Kingdom on top of their $250k+ job with Google.

Disney's workforce cannot, should not, and will never be primarily breadwinners and heads of households. They need students and retirees.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

How about we lower the buffet prices of character meals.. remove the characters from said locations.. and keep the M&G’s open! Simple huh?
There are ways to do it but with this group of people running this show there’s no chance of any rational decisions to be made.

 

[fgmnt]

Disney's workforce cannot, should not, and will never be primarily breadwinners and heads of households. They need students and retirees.

I’m not disputing that, it’s just equally matter-of-fact that this is a problem that transcends what Disney can pay their workers. The people moving into Florida make it harder for Disney to perform as previously expected, as they are not increasing Disney’s potential labor force but contribute to a CoL increase for their existing labor force. It’s not a problem of Disney’s design nor is it one they can wholly solve themselves.

Something I now wonder but can’t look up right now: does Disney directly participate in the financing of tax credit housing projects?

 

[SingleRider]

How about we lower the buffet prices of character meals.. remove the characters from said locations.. and keep the M&G’s open! Simple huh?
There are ways to do it but with this group of people running this show there’s no chance of any rational decisions to be made.

Bob Paycheck would never approve of this.

 

[John park hopper]

Oh poor Disney we just can't increase salaries to attract more employees we just aren 't making any money ---we'll have to raise prices to cover salary increases. Sorry I just don't believe it

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Not a valid point.

The labor force participation rate among white men in 2022 is lower than it was among Black men in 1965. The most privileged demographic in human history is now less likely to work than a group that was systematically discriminated against and excluded from the workplace.

 

[Disorbust]

Disney's workforce cannot, should not, and will never be primarily breadwinners and heads of households. They need students and retirees.

Well students have more opportunities now and the past 2 years of limited acess to the parks and crazy prices in Orlando did nothing to help their appeal to students. In the words of my gen Zer its "cheugy" to do the college program.

 

[mm52200]

Disney's workforce cannot, should not, and will never be primarily breadwinners and heads of households. They need students and retirees.

This is incredibly dismissive. People complain about the lack of quality CMs but then say they don’t deserve a living wage and should expect the company to purely rely on students and retirees to staff four parks, dozens of resorts, water parks and an entertainment district. Make it make sense.

 

[John park hopper]

Labor problems is not a shortage of people able to work simple they don't want to work

"Why? You might think legions of retiring Baby Boomers are to blame, or perhaps the swelling ranks of laid-off workers who’ve grown discouraged about their re-employment prospects. While both of those groups doubtless are important (though just how important is debated by labor economists), our analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggests another key factor: Teens and young adults aren’t as interested in entering the work force as they used to be, a trend that predates the Great Recession.
By far the biggest chunk of people not in the labor force are people who simply don’t want to be, according to data from the monthly Current Population Survey (which the BLS uses to, among other things, calculate the unemployment rate). Last month, according to BLS, 85.9 million adults didn’t want a job now, or 93.3% of all adults not in the labor force."
My question is how do these people pay for --food, clothing, shelter, healthcare
What is their secret cause if I didn't work I didn't eat and I like to eat

 

[Lilofan]

Disney's workforce cannot, should not, and will never be primarily breadwinners and heads of households. They need students and retirees.

How would the senior citizen cast that are retired feel when they are told by mgt to work mandatory OT ?

 

[Lilofan]

Oh poor Disney we just can't increase salaries to attract more employees we just aren 't making any money ---we'll have to raise prices to cover salary increases. Sorry I just don't believe it

I have said it before but there will be critics. Starting wage cleaning hotel rooms at WDW is $17/ per hour. Starting wage as a front desk staff member at Planet Fitness is $10/ per hour. Just a slight increase in one job.

 

[ceecee101]

Having a job as a character stuck in a hot costume greeting some tired, hungry, grouchy (some) people for hours on end—no thanks. how much would they have to pay you to do that job?

 

[CaptainAmerica]

This is incredibly dismissive. People complain about the lack of quality CMs but then say they don’t deserve a living wage and should expect the company to purely rely on students and retirees to staff four parks, dozens of resorts, water parks and an entertainment district. Make it make sense.

Flipping burgers at Cosmic Ray's is not harder than flipping burgers at Wendy's and I'm sick of pretending like it is. Cast members aren't sacred, first of all, and I expect good service no matter where I go.

Entry level, low skill workers earn entry level, low skill wages. Once they've gained some experience, they will earn more, because they're not entry-level and low-skill anymore.

 

[Disstevefan1]

These character meet and greets were legitimate people eaters! Now these folks will be wondering around the park, looking at their phones, refreshing the Genie+ app to try to snag that 7:30PM Lighting Lane return time.

 

[RSoxNo1]

So does this mean no Town Square Theater Mickey meet and greet or just reduced hours?

 

[RSoxNo1]

Flipping burgers at Cosmic Ray's is not harder than flipping burgers at Wendy's and I'm sick of pretending like it is. Cast members aren't sacred, first of all, and I expect good service no matter where I go.

Entry level, low skill workers earn entry level, low skill wages. Once they've gained some experience, they will earn more, because they're not entry-level and low-skill anymore.

Wendy's is very likely paying more than Disney.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Flipping burgers at Cosmic Ray's is not harder than flipping burgers at Wendy's and I'm sick of pretending like it is. Cast members aren't sacred, first of all, and I expect good service no matter where I go.

It’s not just the skill required of the primary task. Things like commute and flexible scheduling also play a role. Just getting to Cosmic Ray’s is most likely harder than getting to a Wendy’s.

 

[Dranth]

Flipping burgers at Cosmic Ray's is not harder than flipping burgers at Wendy's and I'm sick of pretending like it is. Cast members aren't sacred, first of all, and I expect good service no matter where I go.

Entry level, low skill workers earn entry level, low skill wages. Once they've gained some experience, they will earn more, because they're not entry-level and low-skill anymore.

They aren't the same. Even if everything else is equal, someone flipping burgers at Cosmic Rays is likely flipping a ton more burgers in the same shift as someone at a BK and that alone makes it harder. That likely applies to most hourly positions in the parks. You end up doing more work over the same amount of time for the same money you would get elsewhere.