Walt Disney World workers

are casting votes on whether to support a new contract that would raise minimum pay to $15 an hour over the next three years.

Walt Disney World union workers are casting their votes on whether to support a new contract that would increase their minimum pay to $15 an hour over the next three years.

Union leaders said they expect “overwhelming” support for the new contract.

Voting in employee break rooms ends today at 6 p.m., with the ballots expected to be counted afterward at the Park Inn by Radisson in Kissimmee.

Some have said they expect Walt Disney World Resort’s decision to raise wages could influence other large employers in the hospitality and theme park industry.

“Everybody is chomping at the bit to get employees. Now, you’re in a bidding war. It’s going to be hard to recruit against Disney,” Duncan Dickson, an associate professor at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, told the Orlando Sentinel last week.

The new contract would increase the $10 minimum wage to $11 by December, $13 in September 2019, $14 in October 2020 and finally $15 in October 2021.

Other financial perks for Disney employees are the $1,000 bonus that the company had announced after the Republican tax cuts.

Disney union workers also would receive retroactive pay of 50 cents an hour or 3 percent, whichever is greater, dating as far back as September 2017.

The four-year contract would end drawn-out labor talks that began in summer 2017.

The Service Trades Council is a coalition of six union locals that represent 38,000 Walt Disney World Resort employees who work a variety of jobs from custodians, attractions workers, housekeepers, characters and entertainment technicians.

It is the second time union workers have voted on a contract in less than nine months.

In late December, they rejected Disney’s offer, and negotiations resumed until the latest tentative contract agreement was reached Aug. 25.