Following months of pressure, Walt Disney Co. will increase the salaries of some of its California-based theme park staff.
Four unions representing close to 10,000 theme-park workers voted in favor of the new three-year contract. Starting salaries will begin at $15 an hour come January, with an immediate bump from $11 to $13.25, according to the Los Angeles Times. That minimum will increase again, to $15.45 an hour, in June 2020.
Those with higher salaries, such as truck drivers, will see a slightly smaller increase in wages. More specifically, those already earning $20 an hour will receive a bump of 60 cents an hour immediately, and additional 75 cents in January. By June 2020, their hourly wages will reach $21.99.
Existing Disney employees will also receive a retroactive pay increase, going back to June 17 of this year, of either 3% or 50 cents an hour, whichever is greater, notes the LAT. The changes will apply to a range of employees, including ticket takers, custodians, attraction operators, and food service workers.
The agreement follows drawn out negotiations between the company and the unions that had prompted workers to plan a protest over unfair wages. The multi-day demonstration had been scheduled for earlier this week, but was called off after a tentative agreement was reached Monday night.
Meanwhile, the unions representing park workers in Orlando, Florida, are due to resume talks with Disney mid-August. They had earlier rejected a proposal to raise the starting rate to $15 an hour.
