Workers want pay boost

[CentralFLlife]

"give" should be "earn" ....therein lies the problem

everyone who works deserves a livable wage? I could find a way to live off of minimum wage if I had to... ex. if I didn't live alone, have a kid, pay for my directv drv, iPhone, phone plan, internet, clubbing costs, alcohol, etc. ya know... the things that aren't neccesity if you have little income from the job you have

They are earning it thats why they are employed, can you give us a list of jobs that you deem enough to "earn" enough to live off of? Im serious, give a list of jobs you deem deserving of being able to live off of, or ones you don't, whichever you prefer. While you're at it can you also give a list of life threatening medical conditions you deem should be treated and ones that shouldn't?

You do realize how expensive cost of living in central florida is right? Living off 8.33 an hour which is basically what disney pays, is damn near impossible, you have to have help, and you can not save anything. If any sudden emergency costs happen, or you have to miss work because you are sick, you have to be prepared to skip several meals

 

[HM Spectre]

Okie doke. Deleted. I need to get out of here before I get this thread shut down. Back to snarky comments and passable jokes for me. Enjoy the debate y'all.

I'm suprised this thread hasn't been shut down already... I keep waiting for the pitchforks and torches to show up.

 

[CDavid]

I could find a way to live off of minimum wage if I had to... ex. if I didn't live alone, have a kid, pay for my directv drv, iPhone, phone plan, internet, clubbing costs, alcohol, etc. ya know... the things that aren't neccesity if you have little income from the job you have

So, what would your minimum wage monthly budget realistically look like? Because it isn't nearly as simple as you seem to think it is. You will have to cut a lot more than those items listed above, and don't say you are going to eat macaroni 30 days a month or walk 5-6 miles to work, because that's not realistic. I assume you are willing to drive without legally required car insurance, right?

 

[Phil12]

Your post sums up why getting one chance to do that job, even if it's just for a brief while, has meant so much to me all these years. It's also why I'm still still so heart set on this. For this job I'm definitely willing to completely relocate to Orlando from Chicago. Outside of my family, there's absolutely nothing holding me down here that would prevent me from making the move. Outside of family I feel there's nothing left up here for me anymore. I feel in my heart my future isn't here in the Midwest. My heart left for Florida years ago. Right now, my goal is to finally actually take the first step towards this and apply by the middle of March, at the latest. If I do manage to pull this off and get in, I'll wait until after I've been hired to apply to get into UCF. I need to do one thing at a time and the first, most immediate step is getting the application to Disney in. A lot does need to happen pretty fast but I think I'll manage okay make no mistake though, if I get in, I'm going to be telling my current job the job I'm doing now is simply not worth it, that I made my dream come true and got the job I should have to begin with and that my heart left here many years ago. They'll get adequate notice but they will definitely be told straight out why I will be exiting stage right from where I'm working now.

But thank you for that great post, it sums up perfectly why this dream and chance have been so important to myself and I'm sure 100s of others as well as the people who've actually gotten to do it. To me, they're the luckiest people in the world.

This is the reason why workers at WDW have such a low wage. Every month, hundreds of men and women leave their homes to follow their heart and work for Disney. The supply of people willing to work for low wages at WDW is endless and Disney takes full advantage of the situation.

 

[CentralFLlife]

So, what would your minimum wage monthly budget realistically look like? Because it isn't nearly as simple as you seem to think it is. You will have to cut a lot more than those items listed above, and don't say you are going to eat macaroni 30 days a month or walk 5-6 miles to work, because that's not realistic. I assume you are willing to drive without legally required car insurance, right?

Don't forget what happens when you have a tire go flat, or your car needs repairs. What about getting sick and having to miss work? I mean I supposed you could work overtime for it all (If you're lucky enough to be able to sign up for it), but then how could you have the time to go to school to better yourself? This guy is a joke

 

[slappy magoo]

I could find a way to live off of minimum wage if I had to... ex. if I didn't live alone, have a kid, pay for my directv drv, iPhone, phone plan, internet, clubbing costs, alcohol, etc. ya know... the things that aren't neccesity if you have little income from the job you have

1: The current minimum wage is $7.25/hr. If you worked a 40 hour week, you'd make $300/week. Before taxes. You probably wouldn't pay much in federal taxes, but there's still state and payroll taxes. Plus hopefully you have insurance, but you'd probably have to contribute to that. Realistically, you'd take home about $225 a week if you're lucky. $900 a month. Let's see how you'd break that down.

2: When you write "if I had to... ex. if I didn't live alone, have a kid..." are you implying you currently DO have a kid but you wouldn't factor him or her into your finances if you had to live off of minimum wage? And if so, how would go about gettind rid of your child so you could survive off of minimum wage? Because most people I know of who either have been making minimum wage or suddenly lose a decent job and can only get a minimum wage job, they tend to not, you know, dump their kids. But you might have different priorities, who am I to judge? Never mind, just an itemized list on what you'd pay for to survive on $900 a month. Hell, I'm generous, make it an even grand a month. Go. I'll even stop bugging you about who you think deserves to starve by making less than $9.64/hr if you can present a realistic budget, for just you, on an even grand a month. But it has to be realistic, no "I share a studio apartment with 20 other people" hilarity. Realistic rent, realistic cost of utilities, realistic food and travel budget. Shouldn't be that hard.

EDIT: Here, I decided to be helpful, because I'm like that. Here's a listing for a 4BR apartment in Orlando for only $900! http://www.apartments.com/Florida/O...ef8-951b-4e49-92fa-add931370dd6&stype=cityseo
I have no idea if it's a good or bad part of town, but with 3 roommates only paying $225 each, you can afford a little risk! That leaves you with a big fat $775 a month for utilities (I don't think they're included, but the apartment has built in A/C so that's one less appliance to buy!), your food, getting to and from work (LYNX is within walking distance) clothes. ZOMG maybe you CAN afford an iphone with the money you'll save!

Of course, that's assuming you can find 3 roommates and none of them flakes on you, at which point you may have to help cover their part of the rent until you find another roomie. But big deal, $225, $300, what's the diff?

And of course, working an hourly wage, you probably don't have many if any sick days so you want to set aside a little cushion in case you get the flu or injure yourself.

Man, you will be living large.

 

[willtravel]

If a typical front line Cast Members works 6 days every day for an entire year, they might make $30,000-35,000 a year. Based on various friends in low paying roles, working no more than 40 hours a week, they take home about $20,000.

Disney loses a lot of really talented people due to money.

So you are saying that $10,000 to $15,000 is taken out of there check and there take home pay is about $20,000?

 

[slappy magoo]

So you are saying that $10,000 to $15,000 is taken out of there check and there take home pay is about $20,000?

If someone is paying about 22% of their salary to taxes, a 30K annual salary results in about $23,400 take home. They'd probably get a chunk of that back from the federal government anyway because they make so little but it's probably taken out at first. Plus, if they have to pay anything for their insurance, or if they're contributing to a 401(k), then yes, take home could be about 20k. They could choose to not have insurance or not save for their future, lots of people do (or have to) make that choice.

 

[MichWolv]

Oh good grief where do I even begin

First off its supply and demand ....if there are people lined up to work for what they are making now they aren't going to set a much higher minimum wage across the board with the current workers. A lot of people work for Disney as a CM for various reasons things like the college program...and how good Disney looks on a resume, etc.

Sure someone making $8.45 would like to make $10 just like someone making $50 would like to make $51. We all want more regardless of what we make and where we are but wait for it...wait for it....Disney is running a business...not just a theme park for us on the forums

No one is coming down on the workers....maybe the unions in general but not the individual workers.

Simple business logic (that many running the country don't have) is that if you raise the minimum wage by a substantial margin across the board two things will happen a) cost of items will go up and then it won't matter that people are making more or b) more people will lose jobs because the businesses they are running have to offset the cost somehow

I agree most companies are very top heavy and the range is massive from bottom to top pay...but taking from Peter to give give to Paul who doesn't have to work as hard anymore to move up in pay or playing Robin Hood isn't going to solve anything

So what if Disney or Uni decided to give every cast member or front line employee $15 an hour across the board but because of this it keeps them from building anything new for the next 15 years and making cuts elsewhere?

Actually, your "simple business logic" is so simplified that it reaches the wrong conclusion. If the minimum wage went up by, let's say, 50%, costs would indeed go up, but not by 50%, because the line workers' wages are a relatively small portion of total costs -- larger for Disney than for most companies, but still a small portion. So, let's say a 50% increase in those workers' pay causes costs, in general, to rise by 20% (which is ridiculously high, as there is no way the whole cost increase would be pass on to consumers, but still). Well, those workers would indeed still be in a much better position than they were before, so your conclusion that "it won't matter that people are making more" is wrong.

An increase in the minimum wage would no doubt cause some job losses, but the effect isn't as simple as you play it out to be. Remember, all these people who don't lose their job are making more, and therefore can buy stuff they couldn't buy before (because the cost increases won't eat up all of their extra pay). People buying more stuff means some businesses get MORE customers. More customers means more workers, offsetting (to what extent is the question) those who lost their jobs because the minimum wage increase made the place they were working be unable to afford them.

A minimum wage increase does have the effect of taking from the rich (companies, executives, owners of stock) and giving to the working poor. I don't even have to think about whether workers "deserve" the extra pay to see the potential good that could come of this. You want people to stop living off the government? Making the difference in economics between welfare and working a minimum wage job larger that it currently is would help achieve that. You want higher quality workers? Raise the pay so that the supply of labor goes up, thereby allowing companies a larger pool to choose from?

I don't know whether a full time worker should be guaranteed a "living wage", but I do know that effects of increases in wages for the lowest paid workers aren't as simple to predict as WDWDad's analysis suggests.

 

[Figment2005]

By the way, Florida doesn't have a state income tax. The cost of living isn't that much higher either. Living alone is not a problem on Disney income, get a roommate and together you can have a pretty nice place. If you have a family and decide to take the pay cut then that is your perogative. I know I would make sure I could support my family before making a change like that. With Disney there are opportunities all over the place for advancement. Folks who start out as a front like CM and then stay there for 30 years have no right to complain because they had plenty of opportunity to advance. This is all my opinion from experience, but I think I have some good points.

 

[slappy magoo]

An increase in the minimum wage would no doubt cause some job losses, but the effect isn't as simple as you play it out to be. Remember, all these people who don't lose their job are making more, and therefore can buy stuff they couldn't buy before (because the cost increases won't eat up all of their extra pay). People buying more stuff means some businesses get MORE customers. More customers means more workers, offsetting (to what extent is the question) those who lost their jobs because the minimum wage increase made the place they were working be unable to afford them.

That's important to consider, because if you make a low wage, and suddenly have more money, you're probably not going to bank it or stuff it in a mattress. You'll either apply it to debt you've incurred, or you'll spend it, which is stimulative to the rest of the economy. A billionaire is only going to spend so much on food and clothes because he's one guy. Give a million low-wage workers an extra 10 bucks a week, see what they spend it on.

 

[Hakunamatata]

That's important to consider, because if you make a low wage, and suddenly have more money, you're probably not going to bank it or stuff it in a mattress. You'll either apply it to debt you've incurred, or you'll spend it, which is stimulative to the rest of the economy. A billionaire is only going to spend so much on food and clothes because he's one guy. Give a million low-wage workers an extra 10 bucks a week, see what they spend it on.

I seem to remember the same thing being said about the last two stimulus packages.....

 

[Jane Doe]

I haven't had a raise in 5 years. Cry me a river.

So because you haven't no-one else should?

 

[twebber55]

now THAT I would support... haha

HAHA that sounds like the ol Neal Bortz Fair tax which is not as crazy as people think...I wont debate but pretty much agree with everything you ve said...CBO says raising the min wage is a jobs killer in upwards of 1000000 jobs
heres something I didn't know only 2.9% of our work force make min wage and of that 2.9% over half are school age kids 16-22

 

[slappy magoo]

I seem to remember the same thing being said about the last two stimulus packages.....

I know it's de rigeur to say the stimulus didn't work. But it did. The CBO estimates it protected about 4 million jobs and prevented the recession from turning into a depression. The problems were a: it wasn't big enough, it should have been at least 1.5 trillion with most of that going to construction and infrastructure, and b: about 40% of the inadequate stimulus went to tax cuts for upper income people, which was a necessary concession to some wavering votes in order to make the bill filibuster proof. And tax cuts by nature aren't stimulative. The rich took those tax cuts and didn't dump it back into the economy by buying more stuff or investing in new businesses. But that was the best we could get in the climate of the time.

 

[twebber55]

I know it's de rigeur to say the stimulus didn't work. But it did. The CBO estimates it protected about 4 million jobs and prevented the recession from turning into a depression. The problems were a: it wasn't big enough, it should have been at least 1.5 trillion with most of that going to construction and infrastructure, and b: about 40% of the inadequate stimulus went to tax cuts for upper income people, which was a necessary concession to some wavering votes in order to make the bill filibuster proof. And tax cuts by nature aren't stimulative. The rich took those tax cuts and didn't dump it back into the economy by buying more stuff or investing in new businesses. But that was the best we could get in the climate of the time.

we may have been better off if the fed gave everyone in America $30,000 instead because that's what 900 billion is, that would have stimulated the economy

 

[slappy magoo]

HAHA that sounds like the ol Neal Bortz Fair tax which is not as crazy as people think...I wont debate but pretty much agree with everything you ve said...CBO says raising the min wage is a jobs killer in upwards of 1000000 jobs
heres something I didn't know only 2.9% of our work force make min wage and of that 2.9% over half are school age kids 16-22

Interesting read on the subject - http://diverseeducation.com/article/60923/

 

[slappy magoo]

we may have been better off if the fed gave everyone in America $30,000 instead because that's what 900 billion is, that would have stimulated the economy

Perhaps, but again, some people who needed to be appeased in order to get any kind of stimulus demanded a lot of tax cuts to people who probably aren't either of us in order to vote Yea. We got what we could get.

 

[note2001]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disney-workers-want-pay-boost-n38371

"Hundreds of Walt Disney workers call for higher pay and benefits as their union prepares to sit down with the company to negotiate a new contract."

Wait a minute. Hundreds? Not thousands? Union? Well, of course the union is fighting for more wages. That's what unions do.

Anyone have the numbers on how many Disney park workers are College Program Students? How many are retired? How many are highschool aged? Are they in this union?

 

[Hakunamatata]

Perhaps, but again, some people who needed to be appeased in order to get any kind of stimulus demanded a lot of tax cuts to people who probably aren't either of us in order to vote Yea. We got what we could get.

But why didn't the prez use his pen and his phone he has been proudly touting of late to make it happen?