Universal plans wage bump once new theme park opens

Central Florida leaders are celebrating that Universal Orlando plans to raise starting pay to $15 an hour when it opens a new theme park, as compensation for tourism workers continues to creep up in the tourism capital of the world.

Even so, $15 is nearly a dollar less than the current median pay for workers in Orlando, which ranks last of all big U.S. cities in wages.

And some expressed concerns Friday about the effect on the community of building a massive resort employing 14,000 people — the equivalent of plopping the city of Mount Dora on the International Drive corridor.

“That’s a lot of people,” said Eric Gray, executive director of a nonprofit that runs an affordable grocery store and provides other services to help people escape poverty. “How do we house them? How do we transport them? How do we educate (their children)?”

The arrival of Universal’s Epic

Universe “may be one of the most exciting things to happen in Orlando. It may not. The devil is in the details,” said Gray, who also questioned whether the new jobs will offer health insurance.

Universal would not say how many of the new jobs are full-time or part-time or provide details about benefits.

Median pay in the Orlando metropolitan area is dead last of 50 major U.S. cities at $15.94 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meanwhile, Universal theme parks generated $1.5 billion in quarterly revenue, its parent company Comcast Corp. announced last week. Walt Disney Co., which is set to release the newest earning Tuesday, topped $6.2 billion in parks revenue when it released figures in May.

The $15 an hour starting pay also will affect 25,000 employees at Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure where the starting wage has been $12 since February.

Universal parks and resorts CEO Tom Williams stressed the new theme park, which doesn’t have an opening date yet, will offer higher-paying positions, too, including high-tech jobs.

“Nobody’s twisting our arm to do this,” Williams said about the $15 pay rate Thursday during a news conference at the Orange County Convention Center to announce the new park. “This is what we believe is appropriate and what we want to do.”

“I’m a strong believer … of the concept [to] take good care of our team members. And if we do that, they’ll take care of our guests,” he said. “And if we do that, we’re going to make a fair and reasonable profit. That’s going to allow us to

reinvest in our community.”

Others say Universal’s wage increase is in direct response to Walt Disney World Resort, which approved a new union contract last year that raises the $10 minimum pay to $15 by October 2021 through a series of gradual increases. Universal isn’t unionized.

It comes at a time when Orlando’s theme parks are building more hotels and rides and the unemployment is already low at about 3%, so finding workers could be a challenge.

The low supply and high demand for workers is helping push salaries higher, said Andrea Heuson, a business professor at the University of MiamiHeuson.

“Universal is not raising these wages because they have some sort of philosophical belief we should make a living wage,” said Eric Clinton, a Disney union leader who helped negotiate the new contract. “They’re doing this through direct competition with

Disney.”

Still, he called Universal’s decision “terrific.”

“We’re super excited Universal has decided to match the standard,” Clinton said.