Disney CEO Bob Iger Completely Misses the Mark When Responding to Bernie


Mandatory Credit: Photo by REX/Shutterstock (5494735c) Bob Iger 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' film premiere, London, Britain - 16 Dec 2015

Bob Iger Dodges Sanders’ Criticism of Low Wages

On Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders criticized Disney at a rally in Anaheim, California.

“Anybody make a living wage working for Disney?” Sanders asked. “It’s an example of what we’re talking about when we talk about a rigged economy.”

“Disney pays its workers wages that are so low that many of them are forced to live in motels because they cannot afford a decent place to live,” he added. “People are asking is it right that at Disneyland you have a CEO making $46 million while they’re paying their workers starvation wages.”

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

By way of rebuttle, Disney CEO Bob Iger issued an embarrassing strawman attack:

“To Bernie Sanders: We created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade, and our company has created 18,000 in the US in the last five years. How many jobs have you created? What have you contributed to the US economy?”

You’ll notice a little tu quoque thrown in for good measure. Iger dodges answering Sanders accusation about low wages by touting his company’s job creation. But creating jobs and paying workers living wages are two distinct issues.

Though massive job creation is useful, Disney contributes to real unemployment significantly by paying their park workers less than a livable wage.

BobIgerJun10
Disney CEO Bob Iger

A Disney spokesperson echoed Iger in a statement, saying that “Mr. Sanders clearly doesn’t have his facts right. The Disneyland Resort generates more than $5.7 billion annually for the local economy, and as the area’s largest employer has added more than 11,000 jobs over the last decade, a 65% increase. These numbers don’t take into account our $1 billion expansion to add a Star Wars-themed land, which will create thousands of additional jobs across multiple sectors.”

Once again, Disney uses a diversion tactic to direct the conversation away from wages.

For more information about the minimum wage, read this.

H/T: Variety. Featured image courtesy of Variety.


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