Disney World Reaches Agreement With Unions to Hike Minimum Wage to $15/Hour

Disney World got a little closer to being the happiest place on earth for its employees.

The resort giant reached a tentative agreement with its unions to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour for non-tipped employees by 2021 — a 50% increase from the current $10 per hour — in addition to the $1,000 bonuses the company promised to workers back in January.

Service Trades Council Union, a coalition of six unions representing 38,000 Disney World workers in Florida, announced in a press release that the agreement will go to a vote by its workers on Sept. 5 and 6.

Disney boasted in a statement that it was offering employees “one of the highest entry-level service wages in the country.”

The state of Florida’s minimum wage is $8.25 per hour, which exceeds the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

The new contract will raise the minimum pay incrementally until it reaches $15 in October 2021. The offer also includes a retroactive pay increase of 50 cents per hour — or 3%, whichever is greater — for hours worked since Sept. 24, 2017.

The Service Trades Council Union stated that it made no major concessions to Disney in its negotiations.

The agreement is further evidence that companies are having to up the ante to retain talent in a tight labor market — the pay hike announcement comes less than a week after Disney announced it will pay full tuition upfront for hourly workers.

In July, Disneyland announced it was raising its minimum wage to $15 per hour for its more than 9,700 employees. That raise will go into effect in 2019, three years before California increases its minimum wage to the same amount.

TIffany Wendeln Connors is a staff writer for The Penny Hoarder, covering interesting jobs and benefits.