When Vail Resorts decided to slash prices for their Epic pass by 20%, they clearly didn’t anticipate what that would mean in terms of logistics challenges in a season during which labor shortages would run rampant as workers grew more courage nationwide to demand fair pay, and in which Covid would both keep resort workers home while at the same time freeing remote workers to hit the slopes in huge numbers.
The result was chaos. Incredible lift lines, slashed hours for services, closing off of terrain. Vail Resorts stepped into a quagmire. For months, one of the most cherished Instagram accounts in the ski world was Epic Lift Lines, which was not just poking fun at what the Epic pass discounts had unleashed but was also a rallying cry for better conditions for current and future resort workers.
Well, something had to give and, this week, Vail Resorts announced a major wage increase amid other perks meant to attract and retain the kinds of staff that keep their resorts flowing smoothly.
Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch sent an email on March 14 that outlined the company’s decision to spend $175 million bucks to keep its employees, and, therefore, its guests, happy.
Highlights:
• $20 minimum wage for all North American resort employees. Merit-based raises annually for salaried workers.
• “We plan to aggressively pursue building new affordable housing on the land we own, and pursue company leases in existing affordable housing developments, so we can make housing more accessible and affordable for our employees.”
• “When our Broomfield office reopens on May 16, corporate employees will not be required to work in the office a specific number of days, nor need to be based in Colorado.” Translation: career workers can live at the resort.
• Career path development for seasonal workers.
It’s a big commitment from one of the biggest ski industry players in the country. Will it improve the Vail Resorts experience next year? We’ll see.
Photo: Zach Dischner / Pxhere
The simple fact that any corporation has enough money to say, “you know what, let’s take this $175,000,000 and use it to pay our employees more”, says all I need to hear about them.
Too big to fail needs to fail. This company, NEEDS to fail.
The world needs one huge ass reset, back to one where each ski mountain is owned by an individual owner, (no one should be allowed to own several dozen), bike shops are owned and run by individuals rather than corporations, grocery stores are locally owned affairs, one can get a job that won’t be outsourced, downsized, and those companies large enough to be considered “big”, are required, by law, to pay a large portion of their post business expense profits in taxes, so there’s little incentive to grow beyond functional control.
Stepping away from the bong now, carry on with destroying what’s left of this planet, and its unwitting paycheck to paycheck inhabitants…. =: /
Did we read the same article? Sounds like they are trying to do something. Saying too little too late is one thing but your comment seems like you might not have read the article, maybe not even the headline. Also saying how a mountain should only be owned by one person….I mean, take your already extreme views to the most extreme and who says one person should own land? Griping just to gripe I guess…
What Craig said. The main lift on my home hill has been down all season and you have to walk/skin to access lifts to the upper mountain. Weekenders are staying away in droves, but skiing has never been better, and the town is a beautiful, mellow place…