By Caroline Reid and Christian Sylt
Staff at Disneyland Paris have each been handed a record £671 (€800) share of its £117m (€140m) profits in a blockbuster pay package designed to put an end to the strikes that have cast a dark spell on the theme park complex in recent years.
The resort on the outskirts of Paris celebrated its 33rd anniversary on Saturday with a performance of its new Disney Tales of Magic nighttime show. The son et lumière spectacular features fireworks, drones and projection mapping on the buildings lining the Victorian-themed Main Street at the heart of the flagship Disneyland Park.
As it got underway, the amassed crowd erupted into cheers. But there were even happier faces on the staff behind the scenes.
That’s because they are the only Disney employees worldwide who share in the profits of its theme parks. Just a few months earlier, they got their annual payment for 2025. It was hard fought for.
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Pay freeze caused protests at Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is famous for its escapist environment. However, strikes through its two theme parks have shattered their fantasy atmosphere over the past 20 years. In 2009, on one of the busiest days for the Disneyland Park, staff protested against a pay freeze. This caused the first-ever cancellation of the daily parade down Main Street.
It sparked three years of protests leading up to disruption during the festivities for the resort’s 20th anniversary in 2012. The ugly scenes were witnessed by celebrities, including broadcaster Jonathan Ross, who wrote on X (known as Twitter at the time):
“We are at Disneyland Paris for the 20th anniversary. There’s a dispute and strikers march down Main st. Worst Disney parade.”
The 18,244 workers at Disneyland Paris are known as Cast Members due to the role they play in a themed environment. Yet, in recent years, many of them argued that life was far from a fairytale as the war in Ukraine fueled runaway inflation in France.
In the summer of 2023, the parks were paralysed by days of protests from more than 1,000 strikers. This culminated in the cancellation of the nightly fireworks show.
A video of the aftermath went viral, showing throngs of angry guests shouting and booing at Disneyland Park’s central plaza. Further demonstrations were planned. However, they were put on hold due to outbreaks of civil unrest in France after police shot dead a teenager during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
Cast Members were eventually offered a 5.5% pay rise in autumn 2023. Still, tensions with management were left simmering as one of the strikers was subsequently fired and then reinstated after a work inspection found that his dismissal was improper.
Agreement reached
Although inflation in France eased in the months after the strikes, staff still wanted more money. They argued that the 2023 rise should have been higher.
They got their chance at the annual salary negotiations in autumn last year and didn’t hold back.
As we revealed in September 2024, the majority union at Disneyland Paris, the Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), demanded a 6% rise for all employees. Meanwhile, the French Confederation of Management – General Confederation of Executives (CFE-CGC) went further and asked for 7%. It was not to be.
Disneyland Paris did not provide an official statement on the payments. However, insiders close to the talks confirmed that the resort only offered a 3.5% increase. This was due to the uncertain economic climate.
It caused several unions to withhold their signatures, though the CFDT wasn’t one of them. A spokesperson for the union says that although it “would have liked to get more, there is an economic and geopolitical context that unfortunately we cannot ignore especially in our sector of activity which is tourism.
“The CFDT’s signature also shows our willingness to accept a salary increase that does not fully meet our demands but is a compromise between the socio-economic realities of employees, the company or the sector…We hope that tomorrow will be better if we continue to move forward without losing sight of our objectives, the preservation of employment and the defense of employees’ interests.”
They weren’t left short-changed.
Amongst other benefits, staff also got a transport subsidy of up to £1,007 (€1,200), reimbursement of 80% of their public transport costs, payment of 92% of their healthcare costs and a month’s salary as a bonus to anyone with more than a year’s service at the company.
Profit share boosts pay at Disneyland Paris
That’s not all. A source close to the UNSA, a French confederation of trade unions, reveals that any employee who had worked for Disneyland Paris for at least three months also got an annual share of its operating profit. The benefit began in 2020 to help staff through the pandemic. This year, it increased by 52.4% to a high of £671.
It increased despite a sharp fall in the operating profit of Disneyland Paris’ parent company, Euro Disney Associés (EDA). As the Sunday Times recently reported, in the year to 30 September 2024, EDA’s operating profit fell by 20% to £117.5m (€140m). This was driven by an increase in personnel costs following a previous pay increase.
The profit share is partly calculated on customer satisfaction. So, it can rise even if the resort’s fortunes decline. It has had a magic touch.
The UNSA source says “there’s not a common will” to strike again. Even though “a feeling of resentment is slowly growing among some Cast Members” because their pay demands were not met.
Their package is still far superior to the remuneration received by Cast Members at Disneyland in California. They were offered annual average wage increases of less than a dollar last year. Disney improved its offer after they threatened to strike but still only settled on £19 ($24) per hour.
In December, they got another boost, but that, too, was made through gritted teeth. It came in a £184.5m ($233m) settlement paid by Disney to more than 50,000 of its current and former theme park employees in California. This ended a long-running class-action lawsuit alleging they received less than the living wage.
Pay disagreements at Disneyland and Disney World
“The company has been stiffing [thousands of] workers for several years,” said Peter Dreier, co-author of Working for the Mouse: A Survey of Disneyland Resort Employees, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “They’ve denied them the back pay they’re owed while paying CEO Bob Iger over $31m [£24.5m] a year.”
Back pay accounts for roughly £83.1m ($105m) of the total settlement, whilst penalties, interest, and other fees represent the remainder. Disneyland spokesperson Suzi Brown said all Cast Members make at least the living wage and 95% of them make more.
In contrast, the latest pay rise for workers at Walt Disney World in Florida only gave them £14 ($18) per hour. Let alone a share in the profits as their counterparts in Paris are paid. They could end up with even more.
Last month, Disneyland Paris approved the tiers for the 2026 profit share payment. This rises to £860 (€1,025) per person if the operating profit hits £440m (€524.4m). Although it is a long way off that threshold, the resort has a trick up its sleeve.
Disneyland Paris is in the middle of a £1.7bn (€2bn) expansion. This will add several new lands to the smaller of its two parks, the Walt Disney Studios. It will be renamed Disney Adventure World next year on the opening of a land themed to the hit animated film Frozen, followed by one based on the classic cartoon The Lion King.
If these new attractions bring back the magic to the resort’s bottom line, it should boost the workers’ bonus and further reduce the chance of strikes. That really would be a happy ending.
