Walt Disney World Resorts Offering Signing Bonuses to New Housekeepers

Theme parks are among the businesses having a difficult time recruiting staff. To recruit more employees to its resorts in Orlando and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Walt Disney Co. is offering new housekeepers and select kitchen staff US$1,000 signing bonuses, Bloomberg reports.

According to Disney’s career webpage, the starting wage rate for part-time and full-time housekeepers is $16 per hour. Additionally, housekeepers and line cooks will receive the $1,000 hiring bonus—with a first payment of $250 after 90 days of employment and a second payment of $750 after 150 days. Staff members hired prior to June 15, 2021, or after October 2, 2021, will not be eligible for an incentive award.

Last fall, Disney. laid off around 32,000 employees companywide at its domestic resorts due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Bloomberg. However, Disney has rehired more than three-quarters of these employees, including about 15,000 of the workers at California’s Disneyland resort.

Matt Hollis, president of the Service Trades Council Union (STCU), told Bloomberg that about 33,000 of the more than 41,000 members of STCU have returned to work at Florida’s Walt Disney World, which includes four theme parks and a couple dozen hotels.

Disney joins other businesses in offering large monetary incentives to reward faithful employees and bring in new recruits due to the labor shortage