Originally Posted By hopemax I've noticed that people have been asking in Disney is paying CMs enough in many threads on both the DL and WDW boards. I also noticed this in last week's WDW Update from Mouseplanet "Last week, Universal Orlando announced a wage hike, effective next Sunday, that will make the minimum wage at the resort $7.25 per hour, up from $6.75. In addition, new employees will no longer have to wait three months to become eligible for life, dental and health insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan. SeaWorld Orlando has a starting wage of $7.00 per hour, with an immediate start to benefits. Disney's lowest-paid employees start at $6.90 per hour. This may put Disney at a disadvantage as the three resorts enter the big summer hiring season. In addition, Universal is offering an additional 25 cents per hour for those with two years of experience in the tourism or hospitality trade." Awhile back, I was doing some WDW research on Newsbank, and found this snippet in an Orlando Sentinel article from 1989. "It also helps Disney's hiring that the company pays slightly more than most other tourism-related businesses in the area for entry-level jobs. Some employers pay the current minimum wage of $3.35 an hour for those jobs. Earlier this month, Disney raised starting pay for part-time, temporary workers to $5 an hour from $4.65 an hour. Permanent employees start at $5.05 an hour. Wacker said pay for jobs being offered in the April hiring drive ranges from $5 an hour to $7.30 an hour. Pay varies by experience and job category. An entry-level food worker, for example, would earn $5.05 an hour, while a cook with experience would earn from $6.10 an hour to $7.75 an hour. The highest paid, non-salaried chef earns from $6.90 an hour to $8.55 an hour, Wacker said. " Just to keep up with inflation, that $5.05 starting wage would be about $8 today. That $5.05 wage was also about 1/3 more than minimum wage. I think Florida's minimum wage is $6.40. If WDW had kept up with their standard from 1989, they would be paying about $8.50 an hour. And as we can see from the Mouseplanet quote, they are only paying $6.90.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^^Keeping wages down is job #1 in Corporate America these days, which is why Corporate America is the #1 cheerleader for open borders and amnesty for illegal immigramts.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>This may put Disney at a disadvantage as the three resorts enter the big summer hiring season.<< Maybe, maybe not. What troubles me is that Disney can afford to match and surpass those reates being offered at Universal without a single scratch to their bottom line. They are cheapscakes and that is the one most important reason why people quit there. No good money can be made at Disney unless you are white and have a top management job.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe Unfortunately, the higher the wages here the less competive the U.S becomes. A case in point is on the B.J. lawnstuff we bought yesterday for around 2K, was written in big letters Made in China! It reminds me so much of growing up and everything was made in Japan. I just got home from the range, practice greens etc, and in our yard were 12 (I counted them) mostly Brazilians doing our yard on a SUNDAY no less. The regular Ridge crew with mixed nationalities but mostly Americans couldn't do all the spring stuff so they subbed this type job out. The point is CHEAP labor. Of course here it's not that cheap as we pay $25 an hour per man. That's 12 X 4 hours X 25$ = $1200 bucks. I don't know a lot of Americans who work 7 days a week like the immigrants, hence I have a lot of respect for these hard working people.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Funny though, how Japan remains very competitive, even though they pay high wages. I'm guessing this thread will soon be moved to Word Events....
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>No good money can be made at Disney unless you are white and have a top management job.<< What, no AA at WDW?
Originally Posted By cape cod joe fk--Japan is being left behind in China's dust so paying high wages is NOT what makes Japan competitive. It's the quality for Japan. It's quantity and low wages and improving quality that will make China surpass us if we don't get off our butts.
Originally Posted By TiggerRulz Nope Federal min wage is 5.15 and has been since 1997 <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html" target="_blank">http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/ A0774473.html</a>
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <^^^Keeping wages down is job #1 in Corporate America these days, which is why Corporate America is the #1 cheerleader for open borders and amnesty for illegal immigramts< I'd love to argue this-- except for the fact that based on what I do for a living for a large corp-- this statement is absolutely dead on.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Yes it is dead on... the CEO in the airline business is just another example. But to put things in perspective...the minimun pay for CMs at TDR is Y900, which translate to about $8 per hour. Concidering the cost of living in Japan...that doesn't seem to be too much. See the chart here... <a href="http://www.castingline.net/jobs/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.castingline.net/job s/index.html</a>
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>--Japan is being left behind in China's dust so paying high wages is NOT what makes Japan competitive<< I didn't say that paying high wages makes you competitive. Just that its not incompatible with being competitive. But you are right in that you can't pay top wages for commodity work.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >><a href="http://www.castingline.net/job" target="_blank">http://www.castingline.net/job</a> s/index.html<< I guess I need to learn Japanese This reminds me of an expression that is similar, yet different in Spanish vs. English (I'll bet TLDFAN is familiar with this one). In English, when something is incomprehensible to us, we might say something like: "Its Greek to me". There is a similar expression in Spanish, execpt that in Spanish the confounding language isn't Greek, its Chinese.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^There is a great Mafalda cartoon that illustrates this. Mafalda is an Argentinian strip from the 60's and 70's. Think Peanuts, but with a lot more politics. Anyway, the strip question shows Mafalda and her friends doing a math word problem (they are grade school aged) for homework. Each frame shows a child doing the task with the page from the workbook displayed in the background (worded in Spanish of course). In the last frame, Manolito, the dummy in the group, is sweating bullets and his textbook page is in Chinese (or perhaps Japanese?).
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>In English, when something is incomprehensible to us, we might say something like: "Its Greek to me". There is a similar expression in Spanish, execpt that in Spanish the confounding language isn't Greek, its Chinese.<< Well... I don't speak either Greek or Chinese so you lost me.
Originally Posted By Labuda ">><a href="http://www.castingline.net/job" target="_blank">http://www.castingline.net/job</a> s/index.html<< I guess I need to learn Japanese " Not really - just look at the top left image on the page (Disney Casting Center) and then the chart - the lowest amount onn there is 900 Yen.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney If any of you feel the desire to make $7 an hour -- or whatever it is that Disney is paying -- they are having a huge job fair this week. Funny how free theme park tickets and 20% off food, which most savy guests can get with DDE, just don't seem to be enough to attract any competent workers that aren't either getting college credit (and lots of 'friendships' on the side) or are retired and use the pittance they earn to take the grandkids to say ... WDW. And to get political, one day this country will wake up and see the error of its ways in the way it allows companies to treat workers, but by then it'll be too late ... China will own us. But we can all go shop at Wal-Mart and continue to elect officials who luv big business and outsourcing and especially shipping jobs to India to be "competitive." Hah ... what an obscene joke on the children of America's future. WDW CMs aren't what they were 20 years ago. It's amazing they can find bodies that still have pulses to fill all the menial, no hope of ever advancing or getting benefits, they have.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<WDW CMs aren't what they were 20 years ago.>> And yet, 20 years ago, a WDW CM would still be making a low wage. Which is part of my reasoning why raising starting hourly wages wouldn't necessarily equate to a better CM corps. I believe going back to more intensive training, with the full-on Disney University course would do far more to raise quality standards than throwing some money at the problem.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>And yet, 20 years ago, a WDW CM would still be making a low wage. Which is part of my reasoning why raising starting hourly wages wouldn't necessarily equate to a better CM corps.<< Not sure about that but when I left Disney in 1985, I was making $6.30 an hour in Guests Services.. and I thought that was not enough tomake a decent living back then.
