I live in California, about 30 minutes away from Disneyland. I go to Disneyland about monthly (I have an annual pass). Being so close to Disneyland, lots of my schoolmates worked there. There were always stories on about how Disney is tough on it's workers... But the pay was good enough for high school kids, I suppose.

It's really disheartening to hear all of this. I'm a Disney baby. (Of course, I don't agree with the messages in lots of Disney movies and so one, but I still love Disney movies and Disneyland.) My boyfriend laughs because he says I light up and go straight back to being a little girl when I'm at Disneyland or am watching a Disney movie. But this is just... all kinds of wrong.

C'mon, Disney! You're the source of all kinds of magic! Even I, at 21 years old, gaze wide-eyed at my surroundings every time I enter Disneyland and I've been there dozens of times! Don't let us down!

It's truly outrageous how little Disney pays its employees and I wish them the best in their struggle to obtain the living wage they deserve at that Disney has no excuse not to be paying them.

At the same time, I find it interesting how the vast majority of them seem to have bought into Disney's carefully crafted image of itself as a purveyor of "magic" - to the point of having higher expectations of Disney than they perhaps would of another corporation. What other workers would seem so generally surprised that the corporation they work for cares more about shareholder profits than them? It's what corporations are designed to do, after all. Of course, many Disney employees may have applied for the job because they were fans of Disney, but then one also has to wonder if there aren't others for whom embracing the corporation's image of itself isn't a survival strategy, since I think most people would agree that it's easier on the sanity to embrace what you do than to critique it. The whole cognitive dissonance issue.

Anyway, being under so such pressure, I would say that what Disney is doing is certainly unacceptable and worth combating, but that it's also unsurprising... just as unacceptable and unsurprising as it would be for any other corporation. Ironically, though, people's surprise at a phenomenon that should not be surprising seems in this case to accentuate their outrage (not a bad thing, in my view). Something to think about, anyway.

It struck me part way through the first video how many of these stories revolve around the price of healthcare and insurance and how that impacts on the wages the workers get to take home.
It makes me think that the situation would be dramatically improved if you removed exorbitant private healthcare costs and health insurance from the equation - yet another argument for better (/any) public healthcare in the United States.

Another good point the workers make is that the company is using the government to subsidize their workforce through foodstamps/assistance. I wonder to what degree the wealthy at the top of the company feel that that is a smart business decision or if they consider it a cost of doing business...because if they were "smarter" they would be making more, or that "I pay so much..." (being wealthy) that they are taking from me anyway so why pay more?
(This is in no way a shot at the very necessary safety nets this country established)

At several points in the first video Disney staffers expressed frustration that their wages did not reflect their seniority. Do you think Disney's strategy may actually be to encourage brisk employee turn over with the goal of maintaining a younger staff.

A friend of mine worked at Disney World. She was living in a homeless shelter because her pay was so bad (she was paying child support on 6 kids at the time, so her paycheck disappeared fast-- most employees can afford a room somewhere). She would walk to the shelter, late at night and alone, because Disney made her work until after the last bus left. She was eventually fired for failing to maintain her appearance, which she is still convinced had to do with her not having enough money to dress her hair after a friend who was doing it for her moved out of state, so it was in a rather messy and kinky fro instead of a neat white-girl style or cornrows or something.

I would still go to Disney, but I think I'd make a note of most of the employees who I interacted with and write a letter praising those individuals to Guest Communications. Best way to help them get raises and promotions is to shoot GC an email after a visit, with the names and positions of each employee you interacted with. My attitude is, like with Walmart, the workers there don't really have an alternative and Disney losing money only hurts them.

Disney sounds like an abusive spouse. I hope these people find the courage to leave, no matter how much they love it there. Sad.

Thank you for covering our story. We created this video with no other purpose than to tell the story of what it's really like working for Disney. These stories are directly from Disney Cast Members mouths to your ears.

When I set out to make this video the Union leaders and I wanted to be frank but have the end more positive and hopeful. We held an open casting call (Search Youtube for "MouseTrapped 2010 Casting Call". We invited any Cast Members interested in telling their story to come on over. At the end of the day on November 16th, I realized we couldn't make the video that we wanted to.

Being a former Cast Member myself, I knew it was bad internally in the company. I found out that day that it's gotten much worse in the 10 years since I left. These were the stories they told and it was our job, no matter how unpopular, to tell it.

As I was editing the video on my computer, I shed a few tears myself about the situation. We made another MouseTrapped video six years ago (You can search for MouseTrapped 2004 or just go to my page on Youtube: http://youtube.com/james112680). It is amazing how little has changed and how some things have even gotten worse.

Our goal was not to hurt Disney. We didn't want to release this. Negotiations this year are so heated and nasty. The workers aren't getting anywhere. With insurance costs increasing, and the amount of wage increases Disney is offering, the workers are going to be taking home less money than in previous years.

None of these people want to get rich doing their jobs, they just don't want to go backwards.

Thank you again for covering this story. We've gotten a lot of hits from your site. After reading through, it's a new bookmark of mine. Keep up the good work and thank you again!

James Sprague

I worked for Disney Regional Entertainment (Club Disney) in the late 1990s. The cost of living in Los Angeles is far higher than it is in Florida, yet we were not making the same wages as Disney World employees. Most of us had college degrees. We led an almost year-long battle to have health insurance made available to us and comparable pay. We won the right to insurance and a wage increase that was 1/8 of what we were asking for. Less than a year later, Club Disney was shut down because ABC had lost billions of dollars.

Several years ago, I met a Disney World worker who was working at EPCOT as a visiting international student. He expressed his big disappointment that he was told he would have some opportunities to see America and meet local people, but in reality he worked long hours, lived in crowded, substandard housing and rarely had time off. Maybe there needs to be another investigation about the truth behind those workers' conditions as well.

The truth needs to be told. My hat is off to the film makers and the brave employees for risking it all by telling it like they're living it!

This is so disheartening, ive always had the belief that Disney would be a great place to work. I cannot believe how little people are paid, benefits are all well and good but if you cant afford to eat they are no good to anyone. I live in England and I don't know how aware people in Florida and surrounding areas are of all of this but id say most people here are completely oblivious to it. The main complaint here at the moment is jobs and lack of pay, but we have a free health service for everyone, the employed pay taxes to pay for it but the unemployed get it free and get £50 a week to sit on their bums all day. I cannot believe how bad this is. I stumbled across this video because I was considering applying for an international 1 year job I am now reconsidering. Have you got anything about this on Facebook its obvious I know but its a sure way to reach people?

This is so heartbreaking, it has always been my dream to work at Disney and to see the heartbreak and dispair on the faces of this workers made me cry Disney is suppose to be a magical place! With no Cast members they would have no magic they are a big part of the magic! that is what the Upper people are forgetting - I really hope they start realizing this and give them there fare share. 

Perhaps the Federal Minimum wage needs to be raised because it seems that minimum wage is not enough for anyone to live on in any state in this country.