Credit: DisneyIt’s an exciting time for over 20,000 Disney Cast Members as they have been granted their first pay raise in six years.
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The Oriental Land Company, which operates the Tokyo Disney Resort, will raise the pay of its employees by 7% starting this April, according to NHK World-Japan,
The theme-park operator says it has reached an agreement with its labor union to increase salaries and hourly wages for all employees.
This will apply to more than 20,000 people. They include managers and part-time cast members at the company’s two theme parks.
The Oriental Land Company stated this decision to raise Cast Member’s pay was to ensure “employees can work with a sense of security and unleash their respective potential.”
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This is big news as it marks the first pay raise in six years. The Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, opened as Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 and was the very first Disney theme Park outside of the United States. Eventually, the Resort grew and became so popular that a second gate, Tokyo DisneySea, was added. To many, Tokyo Disney is a perfect Resort and the crown jewel of the vast array of Disney Parks across the world.
The Oriental Land Company owns and operates the Resort, while Disney is still in charge of all of the intellectual property found within Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.
This pay raise for employees working at the Tokyo Disney Resort comes in the middle of a tense battle between Walt Disney World and a local Cast Member union. Ten thousand members voted to support the Union’s initial contract proposal, which demanded at least a $5 per hour pay increase for all workers within the next three years.
Disney did not agree to this. “They offered to increase most workers’ pay by only $1 per hour every year for 5 years. The Company also offered additional increases for Housekeepers, Cooks and Dishwashers,” the Union wrote. “The Company said “No” to all of the Union’s other economic proposals regarding pension, health insurance, guaranteed 40 hours, premiums and other important issues.”
Only time will tell what happens with American Cast Members, but this is an incredibly exciting development for employees working at the Tokyo Disney Resort.
In other news, the Tokyo Disney Resort announced last year that its version of the iconic Space Mountain would be getting completely rebuilt, which is a small part of the massive reworking of the Park’s Tomorrowland area. “This newly developed plaza will create a reimagined area of Tomorrowland and is expected to open in 2027.”
Have you ever visited the Tokyo Disney Resort?