Are seasonal employees in ski towns underpaid?
By Matt McDonald, Powder
If you’ve held a seasonal ski resort job you understand what it is to slide along the poverty line in a little corner of paradise that caters to the not-yous. Forget saving money. You need to score three more shifts this week to pay rent on Monday. Bills loom. If you stop long enough to remember you turn 26 in two weeks, knocking you off your parents’ health insurance, your head explodes.
Then, your employer announces another sparkling partnership with three new resorts, plus $50 million in capital improvements that include a hotel and mid-mountain sushi bar. Sure, you’ll get a raise if you stay for another season, but at a quarter an hour, it feels more like a gesture than a game-changer. But hey, at least you ski for free, right?
I think it is outrageous how low the pay is for seasonal workers at ski resorts! Way back in 1966, I worked for the Aspen Ski Corp making milkshakes at the top of the mountain and I made $8 per hour, plus FREE food and a season pass. I think the Tahoe ski-resorts pay their seasonal about the same amount these days — some 50 years later!!! They get some discounts and a season pass — but no free meals! And then they hire foreigners from other countries who will work cheap – just for the opportunity to come to see America. Health insurance??? Are you kidding?