Disney needs to pay more, plain and simple. I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to work as a CM for less than $20 an hour. At this point, Disney is fleecing customers left and right and they can certainly afford to pay their cast members more in order to maintain a respectable workforce.Just a comment on CM understaffing and issues with CMs.
In May I stayed on the hotel side of GCH and was out on the balcony in the evening when i started chatting with the couple on the balcony next to mine. They were a couple of younger CMs doing a one night staycation. Despite their age they had both been CMs for many years. The 3 major points about CM staffing I took away from the conversation:
1. Disney is not intentionally understaffing the parks/hotels, they simply can't find people to do the jobs. No one wants to work there anymore, mainly because staffing has worsened, management is worse, and guests are more entitled and rude than pre-COVID. If they could dramatically increase the number of employees, they would.
2. As a result, they have lowered their standards on who they hire (even hitting CMs who were previously fired) and tolerance of behavior (ie CMs breaking character, using phones etc).
3. The new attendance system is worse for the longer-termed, senior employees who actually care about their jobs, and is only going to make the above situations worse.
This is based on my interaction with these 2 CMs and should not be taken as fact, but opinion as I can't validate them. To the OP, I'm very sorry you're having such a rough time and hope it gets better.