Saturday, December 14, 2019

From an away game

On social media, I made the same point that I did in this post about the $15 minimum wage.

Disney union employee/ complainer: Being a 10+ year cast member, and union representative in my area, sadly I know all too well the financial plights of many of my fellow cast members. Iger will reach hundreds of millions in salary, bonus and options and Disney posts record profits to it's shareholders every quarter. They can do better.
Divemedic: Your post makes the point that the CEO should be paid millions without even meaning to. See, when a CEO runs a company and that company has record profits, the CEO gets large bonuses and salary raises because record profits means that the CEO is doing a good job. Kind of like how a quarterback who leads a team to the Superbowl gets a larger contract.
Pay raises and bonuses are how a company keeps talented people from leaving and taking their skills with them. If Disney didn't pay Iger those bonuses, he would simply take his talent and ability to make a company profitable somewhere else, as soon as that somewhere offered him more money. In the case of minimum wage employees, they make minimum wage because whatever skills they bring to the table don't matter- you are so ordinary and untalented, that if you quit, you would be replaced the next day, and no one would notice the difference.
The stockholders invest in the company because they expect to get profits. Otherwise, there is no reason to invest in the company. Who are the stockholders? They are the pension funds and 401(k) accounts of millions of hard working Americans.
So instead of sitting here with no marketable talent or skills and complaining that you don't make as much as you want, what you do is channel all of that energy that you are using to whine and complain, gain more skills and experience, and then make yourself more valuable. If instead you succeed and get wages increased, you will eventually hit a point where you will be replaced with automation because you have priced your low value labor out of the market.
Second Disney complaining employee:  u are insane and stupid! Rude too. Cast members are what makes Disney go! You can’t automate smiles. Talking to guests. Showing empathy. U have obviously never worked for Disney. U are ignorant. Educate yourself before you make ignorant comments
Some people don't understand business or economics, and this is why they will NEVER understand why the CEO is making so much more than they are- they are just as incapable of understanding the concepts of running a business as a spoon is incapable of tasting the soup.



1 comment:

Beans said...

Cast members are literally a dime a dozen. Especially with every school district now having a performing arts program and there's only so many new slots open in Hollyweird or on Broadway.

Disney has been exploiting cheap labor in both California and Florida from day 1. And the 'cast' member who is identified for complaining will be terminated.

It is the way they work.

And they hire a metric-ton of 'contract' employees rather than actual real employees.

Cast members can be easily replaced. CEOs, not so much.

Salary equals difficulty of replacement.