Was listening to the show when the living wage topic was brought up, again. I think it was Ryno who said that everyone who works a 40 hour work week should be able to afford to live. It was also mentioned that cast members are worried about being able to afford essential items like food. I have a few thoughts that are easier to put in bullet points. Curious to see what you all think.
- If one of my kids decided to be a frontline cast member, I would let them know that Disney is most likely not going to bend to your will when it comes to compensation. If you want to buy a house, car, save for retirement and pay your bills, you need to reconsider working at Disney. You need to change (different job, different college degree, etc.), instead of expecting Disney to change. Several people on the podcast were reminiscing about how they could barely afford to eat when they were cast members, but they made personal changes and now work for Pete. That’s a great example of growing in your career and increasing your income.
- One of the comments on the podcast was that wages should be increased due to inflation. Totally understand that, but that is why inflation is such a huge problem. Wages do not increase fast enough to keep pace. And if wages do increase, inflation can increase even faster. A much better solution is for our lawmakers to do what it takes to reduce inflation. Not sure they have the stones to do that, but that is a topic for another time.
- From listening to the show it sounds you have to choose between making more money elsewhere or working at Disney World. Disney is only going to raise wages when smart, hard working people no longer want to work there.
- It saddens me that cast members are worried about paying for essentials. The majority of them are super talented and could be making more money doing something else.
- The number 1 goal of a publicly traded company is to increase shareholder wealth. Paying people more because of inflation is not normally a high priority. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong, just the way it is. I hope cast members understand that.
- if you are a cast member having trouble paying for essentials and you are reading this, consider a career change. See whats out there. Employers like seeing Disney on a resume (No matter what your job was).