Disney’s grandniece goes undercover boss?

[old lady]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tensions-between-disney-heiress-continue-213441698.html

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I think I like her!!!

I'm not sure whether the article is claiming that park employees are paid an average of $19.00/hr or if that is company wide, but I have a feeling that is not a comfortable wage in California, given what little knowledge I have about the cost of living there.

 

[Kennywood]

Or people could develop skills and get appropriate education to get jobs that pay more.

 

[Hikergirl]

The statement continues on to state that they pay employees at their parks in Orlando and Anaheim earn an average of $19.50 an hour. Employees also have access to subsidized childcare and leave policies, access to pharmacies and clinics and free college degrees and vocational training for hourly employees.


Average pay is above minimum wage, subsidized child care and FREE college degrees and vocational training.
So maybe Ms. Disney should be asking these employees more personal life choices questions. Not beng able to live on your salary isn't just about how much you make, it is about how much you spend. It's about your own choices. Seems Disney is a great place to start out at, you cam make more than minimum wage, they help you with child care and offer a program so you can better yourself by education or vocational training to get a job that pays you more.

I also wonder if Ms. Disney pulls a "salary" from Disney. If so maybe she'd be willing to forgo that and donate it to those people. I mean all these years she's been making money off them right.

 

[RedAngie]

I think I like her!!!

I'm not sure whether the article is claiming that park employees are paid an average of $19.00/hr or if that is company wide, but I have a feeling that is not a comfortable wage in California, given what little knowledge I have about the cost of living there.

It's not clear based on the article. An average of $19.50 per hour for "employees." Could be an average for all hourly employees company-wide, not just those in park positions.

She's a stockholder (probably has a large number of shares) but has no official role in the company.

 

[Hikergirl]

Their statements says "their employees in their parks in Orlando and Anaheim........"

 

[monsterkitty]

The statement continues on to state that they pay employees at their parks in Orlando and Anaheim earn an average of $19.50 an hour. Employees also have access to subsidized childcare and leave policies, access to pharmacies and clinics and free college degrees and vocational training for hourly employees.


Average pay is above minimum wage, subsidized child care and FREE college degrees and vocational training.
So maybe Ms. Disney should be asking these employees more personal life choices questions. Not beng able to live on your salary isn't just about how much you make, it is about how much you spend. It's about your own choices. Seems Disney is a great place to start out at, you cam make more than minimum wage, they help you with child care and offer a program so you can better yourself by education or vocational training to get a job that pays you more.

I also wonder if Ms. Disney pulls a "salary" from Disney. If so maybe she'd be willing to forgo that and donate it to those people. I mean all these years she's been making money off them right.

Here in Denver, a parent with one child needs to make $29.02/hour in order to make a living wage. Pretty sure it's higher than that in Anaheim. A single person with no children needs to make around $14/hour to make a living wage.

What most people don't understand is that many of the lower paying jobs don't always give you 40/week. So while you may be making minimum pay, you may not be working 40/week at that one job. These people are working multiple jobs just to make a living wage.

 

[BrianL]

I don't think the problem is with Disney per se, but rather with the system that allows for such high housing costs, inflation, etc. Disney seems to pay better than a lot of companies, but that may not be enough to live on, especially in SoCal (I dare guess that Orlando residents have a much more reasonable cost of living). I agree that Disney may need to help more, however the real issues are much more complex than just raising wages will solve. I do not purport to have those answers though.

 

[bcla]

It was more a personal expose than an undercover boss. She has no official role in the Walt Disney Company.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

She did not do Undercover Boss - she doesn't work for the company. I don't think she applied for a job or worked as a cast member undercover. It sounds like she just asked a bunch of cast members how they liked working there. But there has to be more to it than that because if a guest asked a cast member how they liked working there, any good cast member wouldn't start immediately griping about their work conditions. Has anyone actually seen the Yahoo News piece? (Yep, Yahoo is where we all go for our reputable News Source, I'm sure.) I've only read the summaries on other news sources.

 

[ChrisFL]

Or people could develop skills and get appropriate education to get jobs that pay more.

Yes and be burdened with decades of student loan debt instead

 

[EveDallas]

Or people could develop skills and get appropriate education to get jobs that pay more.

I hear this response over and over and over when it comes to these discussions. So, let me ask you this - what about people who are not capable of earning a college degree? My son has learning disabilities and struggled harder than you can imagine just to graduate. College was never in the cards for him. So does he not deserve to be able to have a family or even live on his own? People are so quick to say - "Go back to school and get a better job". If only life was truly that simple.

 

[PlainJane]

I thought it was weird that a MK employee wrote to her, but she checked on working conditions at Disneyland. I get that it's probably closer for her, but the concerns of an employee living in Orlando are probably a lot different than one living in CA.

Also, can these employees really not qualify for food pantries, food stamps, WIC, etc if they are in such a bind that they are eating from the trash? I'm really not judging, just a little baffled. Maybe they can't or maybe they don't know the resources they qualify for, or there is the third option that they do qualify but are stuck in the maze of the welfare system.

 

[MrsPete]

I'm not sure whether the article is claiming that park employees are paid an average of $19.00/hr or if that is company wide, but I have a feeling that is not a comfortable wage in California, given what little knowledge I have about the cost of living there.

You can't believe everything you read. For example, the news keeps saying that teachers in my state earn more than $60,000 ... yet if you look at the salary scale, you'll see that the top salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree is $52,000 . I've tried to figure out HOW they come up with that $60,000 figure, and it just doesn't work. Not if you include insurance and other perks, not if it's averaged in with administrator salaries, not if you add in what they contribute to our pension. The number just isn't true. It makes me question all numbers thrown out by the media.

Employees also have access to subsidized childcare and leave policies, access to pharmacies and clinics and free college degrees and vocational training for hourly employees ...

So maybe Ms. Disney should be asking these employees more personal life choices questions. Not beng able to live on your salary isn't just about how much you make, it is about how much you spend. It's about your own choices.

If true, those are excellent benefits.

Yes, personal life choices make a very big difference in your lifestyle. For example, I work with a young teacher who is "limiting herself" to $100/week on clothing and doesn't cook ... and she complains about how she's broke at the end of every month.

Here in Denver, a parent with one child needs to make $29.02/hour in order to make a living wage.

No way anyone can say that with certainty. Is that parent married or single? Receiving help from any other source? Living on his or her own or with parents? Living close enough to walk to grocery stores, etc. or needing a car? Is the child in day care or already school aged? Does the child have any special needs?

No way we can say with any degree of certainty, "This is what it costs to live in Denver with one child."

Yes and be burdened with decades of student loan debt instead

If you're smart enough to go to college, you're smart enough to make choices to avoid (or at least minimize) student loan debt. Again, personal choices /responsibility.

College was never in the cards for him. So does he not deserve to be able to have a family or even live on his own? People are so quick to say - "Go back to school and get a better job". If only life was truly that simple.

Not all good jobs are based on academic prowess. People in the trades make as much as I do with my degree.

Also, can these employees really not qualify for food pantries, food stamps, WIC, etc if they are in such a bind that they are eating from the trash?

Two thoughts:
- A person who's working full time at $19/hour (and doesn't have odd circumstances) shouldn't have to apply for public services.
- The eating out of the trash thing sounds so unbelievable that it makes me question the truthfulness of the article.

 

[bcla]

I thought it was weird that a MK employee wrote to her, but she checked on working conditions at Disneyland. I get that it's probably closer for her, but the concerns of an employee living in Orlando are probably a lot different than one living in CA.

Also, can these employees really not qualify for food pantries, food stamps, WIC, etc if they are in such a bind that they are eating from the trash? I'm really not judging, just a little baffled. Maybe they can't or maybe they don't know the resources they qualify for, or there is the third option that they do qualify but are stuck in the maze of the welfare system.

I'm not sure cost of living adjustments necessarily account for everything. Certainly my tax rates don't adjust for cost of living.

 

[monsterkitty]

No way we can say with any degree of certainty, "This is what it costs to live in Denver with one child."

I got the information from a study done on living wages by MIT. While this wage may not be needed by everyone, according to the MIT living wage calculator, that's what it says for Denver.

One of our news stations did a piece and it was around the same wage. They also showed how many hours a week someone making minimum wage here has to work in order to make basic living wages. After subtracting the total working hours from actual hours in a week, the person would only have around 20 non-working hours a week.

 

[PlainJane]

I'm not sure cost of living adjustments necessarily account for everything. Certainly my tax rates don't adjust for cost of living.

I thought a lot of welfare programs' wage qualifications were based on the area someone lived in. I think I might be misunderstanding your comment.

 

[bcla]

I thought a lot of welfare programs' wage qualifications were based on the area someone lived in. I think I might be misunderstanding your comment.

They do, but whatever adjustments may not necessarily put someone receiving benefits on an equal footing with someone receiving benefits in region with a lower cost of living.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Eh. Every large company has its share of disgruntled employees.

As long as there are thousands and thousands of people willing...no, eager to work in the parks for the wages offered, there is unlikely to be any change.

There is probably a group of people so enamored of anything Disney they'd be willing to pay to work there.

 

[PlainJane]

They do, but whatever adjustments may not necessarily put someone receiving benefits on an equal footing with someone receiving benefits in region with a lower cost of living.

Oh, OK. Now I get what you’re saying. Another factor I didn’t think about was that part-time work with inconsistent hours can create uneven wages leading to months you qualify and months that you don’t.