Abigail Disney takes a deep dive into the wage inequality plaguing the company that bears her family’s name in The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales. The workers at Walt Disneyland in Anaheim are struggling to live on their measly $15/hour minimum wage, while CEO Bob Iger makes 800 times that much. Abigail Disney and co-director Kathleen Hughes explore why this is the case and how it ties in with the larger issue of wage inequality in the American economy.
As the granddaughter of Disney co-founder Roy O. Disney, Abigail Disney witnessed how the business practices changed over the decades, though it was always a rule in the family to never speak ill of the business. However, that changed when Abigail was contacted by Disneyland employees Ralph & Trina, who are struggling to make a living, at one point living in a tent. Abigail follows them and a handful of other employees to illustrate the disparity between Disney’s record profits and the impoverished lives of its lowest employees.
Probably the most repellent fact brought up in The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales is that Bob Iger became a billionaire in late-2020, right out the time 20,000 Disneyland employees were being laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While Disney is the primary focus of the documentary, the wage inequality issues discussed in The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales are something that affects half of the American workers, dating back to the introduction of a free market economy in the 1970s. While her family is no longer directly involved with the company, this film ends up being a wake-up call by Abigail Disney for the corporation bearing her name to get its act together.