Heiress Of Disney Is Upset About Wages For Disney Workers
The heiress to the Disney fortune, Abigail Disney, is making headlines for criticizing the company founded by her great-uncle. She made headlines on Monday for her tweets criticizing Disney and on Tuesday she released an opinion column about the company’s pay practice entitled ‘Naked Indecency.’
The Washington Post published her column — which carried the headline “It’s time to call out my family’s company and anyone else rich off their workers’ backs.”
Disney criticized the Walt Disney Company for the 2018 payment package of the chief executive, Robert A. Iger, worth $65 million. Disney cited a union-sponsored study that his pay rate was 1,400 times that of the median Disney worker. Disney feels that all the company should “reward all your workers fairly.”
In response, Disney aggressively disputed Ms. Disney’s assertions.
“Disney has made historic investments to expand the earning potential and upward mobility of our workers, implementing a starting hourly wage of $15 at Disneyland that’s double the federal minimum wage,” the company said in a statement.
Disney also went on to add that the company had committed up to $150 million for an education initiative that gives hourly employees the opportunity to obtain a college or vocational degree at no cost.
Abigail Disney is the granddaughter of the founder, Roy O. Disney, alongside his brother Walt Disney in 1923. Roy E. Disney stepped down from the board in 2003 and died in 2009, the Disney family has not been involved in managing the company since Roy stepped down.
By: Maytinee Kramer
