SANDUSKY, Ohio – Cedar Point, which made national headlines last year when it increased employee pay to $20 per hour, is planning to reduce starting wages to $15 an hour this year.
In a news release Tuesday morning, the park said it hoped to hire 6,500 seasonal associates in 2022, with a starting pay of $15 per hour. Among the positions available: ride operators, food and beverage, hotel operations, custodial, guest services and more.
Though still substantially above Ohio’s minimum wage of $9.30, the $15 figure is 25% less than the park offered a year ago as it boosted pay to fill needed jobs.
Cedar Point spokesman Tony Clark said that returning park employees would be paid $20 per hour this year.
Michael Goldberg, the executive director of the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University, said he was surprised Cedar Point was rolling back starting wages. He said he has seen little evidence that the tight labor market has eased.
“I’d be surprised if they find success with that strategy in this market,” said Goldberg, who is also an associate professor at the Weatherhead School of Management. “Maybe this is a trial balloon. Maybe their thinking is – let’s put this number out there and see who applies versus being more aggressive. If no one says yes at $15, then they can adjust.”
The park last spring faced a hiring crisis and was forced to reduce hours and close the park on certain weekdays early in the season when it couldn’t find enough workers. Nationwide, employers faced similar problems, in the hospitality industry and elsewhere, as businesses struggled to hire workers after massive layoffs and resignations during the pandemic.
In May, Cedar Point made a dramatic decision: It was increasing starting pay to $20 per hour, double from a year prior, in a desperate effort to hire enough workers to staff the park.
Read more: The consequences of Cedar Point’s shocking $20 wage on Sandusky’s tourism economy
And it worked. After several weeks of reduced hours, the park was able to fully reopen by late June.
The question then, and now: Would Cedar Point have to keep paying those wages in the years ahead?
Goldberg, in an interview last year, said he didn’t think the park would be able to scale back pay wages if it hoped to rehire seasonal workers who are college students or local residents. “If you want that $20-an-hour worker to come back next summer, you better not cut their pay,” he said last year.
One factor that may be influencing Cedar Point’s decision: The park will likely see the return of an increasing number of international workers, through the State Department’s Summer Work Travel initiative, part of the J-1 Visa program. The program, shut down during the first year of the pandemic and not fully operational in 2021, is expected to scale up this year. In a normal year, the park hires more than 1,000 workers from overseas.
Clark said he did not know how many international workers would be employed at Cedar Point this year, “but international hiring appears to be returning to pre-COVID levels. It’s all still dependent on the travel restrictions in each country, which are ever-changing.”
In addition to wages, the park also offers several perks, including flexible schedules, free park admission, transportation, on-site housing and more.
The $15 hourly wage range has become common for some service-industry employers that previously offered lower wages. For example, Starbucks and Chipotle are among those now promising starting pay of $15 an hour, and research indicates wages for lower-paid workers have been increasing faster that pay overall.
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