M-I-C-K-E-Y… F-U
Despite grossing 20 billion in Q3 revenue, Disney is cutting a key employee benefit.
*This is a departure from my typical tech-oriented writing to address Disney’s callous business decision announced in early September, 2024.
From 2019–2021 Disney paid 100% of the cost of my data science master’s degree. Effective November 2024, it will impose a strict cap on what was once a market-leading program, leaving hundreds of cast members stuck with the bill.
In August of 2024 Disney announced that despite decreased traffic to its global theme parks and a drop in sales of global consumer products, it narrowly beat its Q3 revenue target by 1 million dollars:
It made 23.2 billion instead of the projected 23.1 billion.
Nearly 1 month to the day of its Q3 earnings call, in which it disclosed certain sectors like streaming had tripled its revenue, Disney announced it would be cutting its market-leading 100% tuition coverage program: Disney Aspire.
For context, earlier in the summer, Disney announced the commissioning of 4 cruise ships to sail between 2027 and 2031.
Here are the costs of 3 Disney cruise ships:
- Disney Dream: 900 million — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Dream
- Disney Fantasy: 950 million — https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Fantasy
- The Disney Wish: 2.4 billion — https://www.themagicforless.com/tmflblog/details-count-on-disneys-wish
Since 2007 Disney has spent nearly 5 billion dollars to develop cruise ships.
In November 2024, it will cap its previously 100% covered tuition program at $5,250 per person per year.
The average in-state tuition for an American public university is $9,349. The average out-of-state cost is $27,023, according to the National Center For Education Statistics.
A 3-night Disney cruise to the Bahamas costs between $1,500 and $2,500.
By this logic, Disney values its employees’ continuing education slightly higher than a weekend cruise for 2.
If you couldn’t tell, I’m taking this news a bit personally.
From 2018–2021 I worked for Disney, first as a College Program Participant and then as a part-time cast member.
In 2019 I enrolled in Aspire which, at the time, covered 100% of my tuition. Disney introduced Aspire one year earlier in 2018.
When I enrolled, I got a nice welcome package and was paired with a student success advisor. Despite Disney furloughing me in 2020 due to the pandemic, I was allowed to continue to pursue my data science master’s.
The cost of my education was nearly $30,000.
I never received a bill or so much as a confirmation email.
The most scrutiny I received when in the program was a recreation coordinator telling me I couldn’t drink out of a Disney Aspire water bottle as logos were not part of appropriate Disney appearance policy.
I continued anyway, as the bottle promoted a company initiative; that protest remains my single greatest act of civil disobedience.
Just 3 years ago company enthusiasm for Aspire was palpable. In the bike rental window where I briefly worked, my co-workers would not so slyly do homework assigned by Aspire partner schools.
Driving home I’d hear radio spots announcing a Disney hiring fair and Aspire was featured as a prominent benefit. The company’s website and social channels would feature success stories of Aspire graduates. Everyone was encouraged to enroll at any level. No questions asked.
One of my trainers in Magic Kingdom Transportation, a retired pilot, even went as far as to complete 3 degrees while in Aspire — for fun.
Not only is Disney capping tuition costs (a stark departure from 100% coverage), it is also limiting degree eligibility to 1 degree and that degree must be a 4-year undergraduate degree.
As an Aspire graduate who earned a master’s degree on Disney’s far less frugal dime, I’m incensed.
While undergraduate degrees still hold some value within the job marketplace (so I’m told), a master’s degree, nevertheless a 100% comped degree, opens up incredible paths to tangible career and financial advancement.
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that graduates from post-grad programs earn 25% more over a lifetime than those who hold an undergraduate degree.
Had Disney not chosen the Disney villain route this fall, I’d gladly be a poster child for Aspire.
The program and Disney’s comparably generous funding changed the trajectory of my career and my life.
In 15 months I learned 2 programming languages, processed terabytes of data, failed hard at graduate statistics and still managed to get hired at a job with a starting salary making 2x what my former Disney bosses make (I know this anecdotally from a post-Disney party conversation).
I say that not to brag, but to illustrate the necessity of a pipeline of upward mobility within an organization, especially a hierarchy as rigorously defined as Disney’s.
Being able to go from hourly employee to a decent salaried role is essential for survival in Orlando, a city with the highest cost of living relative to average worker wages.
The cost of living in Orlando is so imbalanced compared to the average wage that the Orlando Sentinel even ran a headline earlier this year suggesting that to maintain even a middle-class existence in Orlando, a household would need to gross 100k.
If Disney were a smaller company who didn’t have legions of naive souls foaming at the mouth to work in the Confectionary, it would care (or at least pretend to care) about dangling educational benefits to prevent employee churn, which tends to occur when employees hit a perceived earnings, advancement or satisfaction ceiling in a current role.
Unfortunately, money, and overworked/undervalued labor, are limitless resources Disney has at its disposal.
However, what it didn’t count on is the backlash this decision would prompt because limiting a previously unlimited thing is jarring. What if Olive Garden suddenly announced unlimited bread sticks with a 25 bread stick a year allocation cap? And cut unlimited salad?
If it never offered those perks in the beginning you’d probably react much differently to that news.
I (and I hope you) will remain optimistic because, already, so many employees (cast members) are speaking out and voicing their displeasure — and disgust — with Disney’s “business decision.”
- https://www.reddit.com/r/WaltDisneyWorld/s/7jB4ZDtkD1
- https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-changed-the-aspire-program-for-their-employees.3953379/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/csuf/s/ulyBfE6WBj
If you are one of these CMs whose education was interrupted, here is a comprehensive list of companies Disney’s education provider, Guild Eduction, partners with.
In closing, I’d like to address anyone enrolled in or remotely considering Aspire or anyone who feels trapped at work by promised benefits.
My sentiment is best encapsulated by a Tweet I saw the other day.
It said one thing adults don’t realize is that we can just get up and leave anything at any time. Technically you can just walk out of your doctor’s appointment or pretend to use the restroom at the DMV and never return.
People tend to treat jobs as politely attended appointments and end up losing years of their lives.
I know too many people who stayed at Disney not just for the promise of Aspire, but for empty promises of enrichment and advancement.
I’m not telling you to leave.
But I am saying that if your company only says your future is worth 5k a year — maybe just ask it to book you a cruise.
Zach Quinn is a former journalist turned Senior Data Engineer building data infrastructure for a magazine you’ve probably seen open on Logan Roy’s desk.
