Disney Cast Member Wage Battle to Continue in 2023

Various unions that represent Disney World Cast Members have been negotiating with Disney about wages and benefits.

Cast Members at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

Back in November, we shared that some labor unions held a rally over employee pay. Disney later released a statement on the Cast Member pay negotiations. Now, we finally have an update as to what’s going on.

As a brief recap, the contracts for many Disney unionized employees expired on October 1st. Thus, they have been in negotiations with Disney about updated contracts and they raised concerns about wage increases, health care, and more.

Unions have been pushing for Disney to increase the minimum wage to $18 per hour, and increase the pay of those who make closer to that by $3 to keep up with inflation.

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Disney released a statement about the union requests saying, “We have presented a strong and meaningful offer that far outpaces Florida minimum wage by at least $5 an hour and immediately takes starting wages for certain roles including bus drivers, housekeepers and culinary up to a minimum of $20 an hour while providing a path to $20 for all other full-time, non-tipped STCU roles during the contract term.”

But some employees have indicated that the changes would not take place soon enough, as high housing costs and inflation is impacting them now.

Cast Members

Now, UNITE HERE Local 737, a union that represents employees that work for Disney World Food & Beverage and Housekeeping, as well as other employees within the Orlando area, has shared an update on the contract negotiations.

According to their update via Facebook, they are continuing to “push for raises that help Orlando hospitality workers survive the devastating inflation we have experienced.” They also discussed how they released a report earlier in 2022 that called for a minimum wage of $18.

Cast Members

According to Local 737, they’ve signed contract extension agreements with Disney that “include raises retroactive to the date the contracts expired.”

Local 737 shared that, “At Disney, all 6 Unions return to the bargaining table on January 9 and 10 at the Wyndham at 3011 Maingate Lane, Kissimmee. Members are welcome to attend.” They explained that they have already asked Disney to present them with their “best offer” in January, and as soon as they have a contract offer they will share those details with Local 737 members.

Minnie with some Cast Members!

We’ll continue to keep an eye out for more updates and let you know what we find. In the meantime, click here to see why some say “time is ticking” on Bob Iger, or click here to see why others say Bob Iger’s mistakes would have killed any other CEO. Stay tuned for all the latest Disney news.

Click here to see some perks announced for Cast Members in 2022

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