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Is Disney’s $15 Minimum Wage Hike a Help or a Hoax?
Townhall.com ^ | December 18, 2018 | Carl Jackson

Posted on 12/18/2018 11:32:53 AM PST by Kaslin

Did you know that the average family income for a minimum-wage worker is over $50K a year? How about that the vast majority of minimum wage workers are second, third and fourth earners in their families and not the primary earners as leftists often claim? In other words, a spouse or child is simply supplementing the income of the primary earner in most cases. Furthermore, did you know that two-thirds of minimum wage jobs are occupied by workers between 16 and 24 years of age who are first time inexperienced and unskilled labor? Additionally, has anyone ever told you that workers who begin a job at minimum wage will normally see a pay increase within their first 90 days to a year of employment?

Minimum wage has always been the starting line not the finish tape of our workforce. The aforementioned information is important to know before you read on.

Disney recently agreed to arbitrarily raise their starting minimum wage to $15 per hour for their employees. This may have appeased social justice warriors and their union members, but long term, this is a larger win for the big mouse than it is for their employee’s, despite the hype. Don’t get me wrong. Disney has every right to increase their minimum wage as a private employer, but should they?

Ultimately, someone is going to have to pay for Disney’s hourly wage hike to their workers. The question is, who? Well, it will be park-goers, other local businesses and Disney’s hourly workers themselves that will be hurt by the new contract that was approved in September of this year.

Due to Florida’s great weather and its parks, Orlando attracts more tourists than any other destination site in the United States. So, you can imagine how competitive the search for tourism workers are here. If tourism workers quit their current employer to seek an opportunity at Disney for higher pay, only to find the pay isn’t what they’d hoped, not only does their prior employer lose their worker, but Disney will become even more of a local monopoly than they already are.

Why is this dangerous? Because Disney executives will have no incentive to keep their prices affordable for average park-goers, and other local businesses will not have the capability or incentive to compete. Ultimately, Orlando will have fewer jobs available for tourism workers, and all related industries will pay the price for it.

Lastly, customers will be hurt by the minimum wage hike. If you’ve never been to Disney World, there’s nothing like it. Everything from their parks, to their resorts, down to their employees, make you feel amazing! I wish everyone could afford to experience it. However, their prices have skyrocketed to a point that the average Joe can no longer afford to visit their parks without overspending or going in to debt. I don’t believe that’s what Walt Disney had in mind. Higher wages will all but guarantee fewer consumers will be able to experience Disney’s magic.

Just like federal minimum wage hikes, arbitrary minimum wage hikes, albeit private, never benefit the people intended. Just something to think about.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: disney; economy; wages
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To: alternatives?

Some of their ‘workers’ are rude and treated my children badly when interacting with them. Lying and berating them when they were just participating in an activity or ride. These employees don’t like cisgenders and espescially their children. They are activits for LGBTQ-etc. first and foremost. Teamsters, so they are protected to harrass.

Example of WDW honesty: near closing my 3 y.o. son was running on Tom Sawyer island and tripped on the walkway. He fell and broke his elbow. Medics showed up, looked him over, applied a bandaide and told us to go to the aide station to get a sling. When we arrived the aide station was closed and they would not open the door. My son needed medical attention ASAP. We ended up leaving the park and taking him to a local hospital for a $1500 bill insurance wouldn’t cover. They said it was WDW’s responsibility because it happend on their property. WDW would not talk to us about it.

Busch Gardens, Tampa is completely different. Helpful, polite and courteous employees. The park does not hesistate to fire apparently as there is a high turnover. No union.


21 posted on 12/19/2018 4:01:46 AM PST by Justa
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To: elbook
Remember this:

ALL LIBERALS LIE!

THEY CAN'T HELP IT

LYING COMES NATURAL TO THEM

THEY ARE BORN TO LIE

22 posted on 12/19/2018 5:27:28 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: morphing libertarian

I wonder what percentage of the parks’ customers are foreign visitors? That might explain a lot.


23 posted on 12/19/2018 5:41:06 AM PST by mewzilla (Is Central America eng its prisons?)
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To: Neidermeyer

I’ve never been to Disney (and never will go), but I was really turned off when “fast pass” started appearing at theme parks. After spending so much money to bring the kids, I don’t need to be reminded of my second-class status by a special line for wealthier people to get on rides first (what a lesson for the children of the less well-off!). They have every right to set this up, and I have every right to say “F off”. Thankfully the kids are older now...


24 posted on 12/19/2018 6:09:08 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kaslin

Price affordability should be the last concern—Disney charges what the market commands, not what assures some modest profit.

$15/hour isn’t that much and it is entirely their business. Will that lead to them automating some low-productivity jobs? Maybe, but so it’s going anyway.

We really just need to send illegals home—where they would do more to build up their home countries than Trump’s $10B giveaway to their government overlords will.

Oh, and stop with the government-provided student loans and grants. Let college kids work their way through college like we did, back in the day.


25 posted on 12/19/2018 6:14:51 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: mewzilla

Don’t know. I always see Japanese
And
Chinese
There
In
Bunches. Meet people from
Midwest with grandkids


26 posted on 12/19/2018 6:43:01 AM PST by morphing libertarian (Use Comey's Report; Indict Hillary now. --- Proud Smelly Walmart Deplorable)
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To: I Drive Too Fast

Anyone going to Orlando should check out space center 1hour east to the coast


27 posted on 12/19/2018 6:45:04 AM PST by morphing libertarian (Use Comey's Report; Indict Hillary now. --- Proud Smelly Walmart Deplorable)
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To: sipow

So, to all who answered, but didn’t answer, my “what do they charge for that other places don’t?” question...

The cereal thing...really? You thought they would provide free cereal for your children?

The paying for parking thing. Universal down the road charges $20 for parking. Sea World charges $20 for parking. Parking is not normally free in Orlando theme parks.

The maintenance thing. You said yourself that you worked there 40 years ago. Maintaining a 10 year old park and maintaining a 50 year old park are two very different things. As for the quality of the rides, may I point out that Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Snow White’s Scary Adventures were just as sucky as anything they have today. As for rides being shut down, you can go on several web sites and see what is being shut down for maintenance. They tend to do it during the less visited times of year, like February and September.

Yep, the lines are long, just like any other theme park.

Yep, it is not cheap to go in, just like any other (decent) theme park.

It is not for everyone.

Show me a place where you can pay one admission price (a Park Hopper pass) and over the course of a couple of days visit 4 distinctly different theme parks, two additional water parks, a shopping/restaurant area, multiple pristine PGA golf courses and more.

There is nothing else like it.


28 posted on 12/19/2018 8:41:10 AM PST by Crusher138 ("Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just")
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To: morphing libertarian

We did that tour (the KSC) in February of this year. They have expanded a lot since we were last there in 1984.


29 posted on 12/19/2018 9:16:19 AM PST by I Drive Too Fast
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To: Skywise
And even that wasn’t enough money so they instituted nightly parking fees!

I was talking to a guy who lives there. He lived near Epcot in one of the first neighborhoods near it years ago, but has since moved to another area. He said what a lot of people were doing was parking in the hotels parking lot then taking the free shuttles to the parks to avoid paying for parking. All of the parks depend on their parking revenue so this stopped that slick move, but at the expense of actual hotel guest so it doesn't quite seem fair.

30 posted on 12/19/2018 9:25:19 AM PST by I Drive Too Fast
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