2008 Pay Scale

Chief Wahoo said:
And here I though college was about getting an education.

It is telling that most colleges these days have "dorms" that put CP employee accommodations to shame. I understand economics enough to know CP can't really beat/match what the colleges are doing...but heck, they aren't even making an effort. On the contrary, it is like they are saying..."here is what we've got; take it or leave it."

It seems they are leaving it more and more each year.

I couldn't agree with you more. Schools like University of Akron, Toledo, Cinncinati, etc.. KILL cedar points. I heard on the news that one of Akron's new residence halls actually has an indoor pool in it. I never understood how conditions at CP's could be like that, considering employee's only live in them for an average of 3-4 months, and work all the time.

Someone who knows more about the corporate governance of Cedar Fair than me, but please tell me, why in the hell did they increase the distribution when they are massively in debt from buying out Paramount and now this situation with lower bonus.

I know a little bit about this, investors are important, VERY important. I am going through that a little bit myself. I am dealing with an investment firm here in WV, pitching my master plan for some kind of amusement park here besides Camden Park. Not that Camden is bad...but we need a nice boost to tourism, and that's what these guys specialize in. And over the past 3-4 years of planning, and almost 6 months of meetings and luncheons, i'm almost burnt out all of the process.

I don't know the whole situation there at CP, haven't been around for awhile, but it seems to be like they made a good and bad decision. A good decision being that they saved some good parks from going down the drain, and gaining some momentum with more choices, variety of parks, etc., etc. But, the bad decision in maybe (maybe, I am not them, and I haven't really studied them enough) not projecting, or thinking too much into how sometimes the economy can change so quickly and how much they are borrowing vs. budget vs. the economy. Of course, I am no financial expert. I think maybe they just need to lay low for awhile and cut spending, and then they can find room for improvement in the employment department. I honestly am willing the bet (and I am obviously pointing out the obvious) that this whole situation has to do with how much debt they are in, and they are keeping from going under. They are just walking on eggshells, and they made yet another bad case of judgement by taking advantage of the employees and how hard they work. Because parks obviously can't afford everyone to be full-time, year-round employees. They don't need that. But you know how corporate people are. They are devoted to their customers (and down the road, it will definitely reflect the opposite by the pay rate vs. employee quality) and don't want to have to cut the stuff that customers use the most...the rides and attractions. That would be devastating to CP even though it would give them a little bit of wiggle room. Considering that their electric bill is a mammoth, and considering they have 14 parks to run that way and keep up with maintenance, labor costs and the alike. They have a lot on their plates. Another suggestion to them is come out and say that to their employees and explain to them the situation and why they are cutting the pay scale. But like I said earlier, you know corporate america (not to be all down on that) they would not do that, let's wait until hell freezes over. But, it would be a wise move on their part, becuase if it wasn't for the employees, they wouldn't have nothing to work with (pardon the pun). I guess that they don't want to show their weakness, but isn't it obvious? : )

And also, considering the way the banks are going these days, the interest rates, and the housing market. I mean, look how many people have had their homes foreclosed with no place to go? It's stupendous. Not that this has anything to do with corporate spending but, it sort of does--it's the economy we're talking about here.

So I guess we can all be grateful for a few things here--that everyone is able to work, and make at least a decent wage, and have the opportunity to make great friends and have a great experience for the summer. Of course, you don't want to have to be a single parent, with 2 kids struggling with the same situation (i'm not in that situation, i'm just married--no kids...thank God, for now), so that's another thing to be glad of. :-)

Sorry for the long post, just trying to find the silver lining in all of this, and possibly try to come up with some hypothesis as to why this is happening.

If you feel that you do not get enough money for the work that you do then why do you continuously go back to work at cedar point? I've worked there before and i agree that the pay is not enough. But when they always have people going back year after year for the same crappy pay why would cedar point bother to change anything? You people do know that there are OTHER actual fun jobs out there that pay overtime and you do not have to work 70+ hours a week....

The pay was never an issue for me at all, the reason I kept going back to Cedar Point was because I thought it was beautiful. I never got tired of riding across the causeway every day and seeing the park, with all of it's colors and structures, come into view, surrounded by the lake and bright blue sky above. I never tired of walking through the park and taking in everything, especially early in the morning and late in the evening. I really liked Sandusky itself as well. Working there was much better than being in a colorless, drab office with flourescent lighting glaring overhead.

It wasn't the pay that bothered me but rather being expected to do the work of two or three people and consistently working 12+ hour shifts. I'm a person that values her free time more highly than making tons of money...I'll come in and gladly put in my seven or eight hours, even six days a week, but any more than that and I start to get worn down pretty quickly. If the park has staffing issues that really isn't my fault, sorry. I'm only one person, I can't do back to back shifts and double the work that I should be assigned.

Even as much as I loved, and still love Cedar Point - I plan to one day spend my entire summers living in the Hotel Breakers - there are unfortunately just as many negatives as positives, and for a lot of people, the negatives in fact outweigh the positives. I don't think it matters if the bonus was $2.00 an hour - if people get burnt out and exhausted and want to quit, nothing is going to hold them back. There are a lot of stories of people abruptly quitting out of frustration and exhaustion but then not long after finding themselves missing the place and trying to reapply next year. People really do love it there, and it is a lot of fun, and that is what is so frustrating. When it's fun it's really fun, but when it's bad it's really bad.

though many people have commented on the "greedy" comment from the first page (I haven't read the other four pages yet), I decided I'd add to the comments. Now while I continue at this job because really it is the experience for me because tourism retail is something I truly enjoy, ESPECIALLY at Cedar Point, its true how the fifty cent bonus didn't hold as many employees as the 1.00 bonus did. Minimum wage went up for a reason, and we're losing that benefit. in 2004 and 2005, and even 2006 (though I didn't work that year), we were a good paying job with benefits of housing and other items. Thats because we were basically getting base pay of 7.25 (I believe, including bonus) an hour...way above the 5.15 mininum wage I was receiving at my other job at the beginning of 2004 at the YMCA as a childcare provider...So that was 2.10 above min wage...Last year base level moved to just fifty cents above min wage level (with the bonus)...we didn't receive a pay raise, because they had to make the per hour rate at least min wage...and they took the subsequent amount out of our bonus...so now the job attraction as gone down, while other companies move up their pay levels we are still stuck, now this year we are just at 35 cents above minimum wage....SOOOOOOOOO If you followed all that and got my point (no pun intended), I can see why people are complaining. I love my job and will be there even if we don't have a bonus...though I hope it never comes to that, but a lot of employees aren't going to want to return if it goes lower...so we lose quality returning employees (I know we already have for this year) and we aren't attracting any others...
Um by the way if this message was already written in similar context, sorry, as I said before haven't read the other pages.

I still believe this year is going to be an awesome year...lol I just hope all the others believe so too and stick around for the whole season.

SARCASTICsatan said:
If you feel that you do not get enough money for the work that you do then why do you continuously go back to work at cedar point? I've worked there before and i agree that the pay is not enough. But when they always have people going back year after year for the same crappy pay why would cedar point bother to change anything? You people do know that there are OTHER actual fun jobs out there that pay overtime and you do not have to work 70+ hours a week....

that's the point though, people aren't coming back year to year, we had less come back or even stay a whole year last year and with us staying open even longer this year we have less returning employees and we're not too sure about incoming employees. I'm hoping for a good crew, Cedar Point is a great job, but people have financials to look after so they can't just base it off it being a good, fun, and experience filled job.