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Credit: DisneyIt has been a challenging month for those on the margins of society, who are struggling to make ends meet. The newly ended government shutdown put those using SNAP in the crossfire as their benefits were cut, reinstated, and cut again. But now, with the government reopening, SNAP benefits will be returning.
Disney World cast members were no different than those who are struggling to get by, only they work at the “Most Magical Place on Earth.” However, new reports emerging show just how difficult life is for those Disney World cast members who help create that happiness.
In 2023, the Service Trades Council Unions, a collective of unions representing the thousands of cast members at the Walt Disney World Resort, won a much-deserved raise for Disney World employees. The new contract would raise most cast members’ salaries above $20 an hour by early 2024 and nearly $25 an hour by 2026.
Based on those numbers, a cast member making $25 an hour will make $1,000 a week before taxes and $52,000 a year. According to Fox 5 Orlando, a single adult living in Central Florida would need a salary of $48.22 an hour or more than $100,000 a year to live comfortably in the Orlando area. That’s nearly half what a full-time Disney World cast member would make working 40 years a week, every week of the year.
According to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Orlando, Florida, ranks second-to-last among 50 cities nationwide in terms of wages. Last year, Orlando ranked dead last, but this year, it came in just ahead of Las Vegas, Nevada, which is having its own issues.
The final report could be bad news for Disney World and cast members. According to a new survey from Florida Atlantic University, nearly half of those living in Central Florida are considering leaving. The main reason they gave in the survey was “affordability.”
Forty-two percent of those surveyed said they were considering leaving the state due to its affordability, and 80 percent said they were “concerned” about rising housing prices in the state, pricing them out of the market.
These new reports all hold bad news for Disney World cast members who are struggling to make ends meet. At least now, the government is reopened to help them.
What was your favorite interaction with a Disney World cast member? Let us know in the comments.