Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said that Disney should be spending its $1 billion-plus profits from the Avengers: Endgame film on paying all it’s employees middle-class wages.
“What would be truly heroic is if Disney used its profits from Avengers to pay all of its workers a middle class wage, instead of paying its CEO Bob Iger $65.6 million – over 1,400 times as much as the average worker at Disney makes,” Bernie Sanders said.
What would be truly heroic is if Disney used its profits from Avengers to pay all of its workers a middle class wage, instead of paying its CEO Bob Iger $65.6 million – over 1,400 times as much as the average worker at Disney makes. https://t.co/NrcFSk4LZc
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 29, 2019
Sanders’ statement comes after Roy Disney’s granddaughter Abigail Disney criticized Disney CEO Bob Iger over his salary.
“When [Iger] got his bonus last year, I did the math, and I figured out that he could have given personally, out of pocket, a 15% raise to everyone who worked at Disneyland, and still walked away with $10 million,” she said. “So there’s a point at which there’s just too much going around the top of the system into this class of people who–I’m sorry this is radical–have too much money. There is such a thing.”
Avengers: Endgame certainly has been a huge box office success — earning over $1 billion globally in its opening weekend. Of course, the stars of the film, like many in Hollywood, have used the popularity of the movie to promote their social justice views.
Don Cheadle joked about snapping President Trump out of existence, while Brie Larson used her spotlight to lecture viewers on the need for more diversity.
“Diverse storytelling matters, the female experience matters, and these are markers,” she said, also saying that Marvel has “gotta move faster” with diversity in film.
Sanders, who announced his 2020 campaign in February, continues to have strong polling numbers, though he is still lagging behind Joe Biden, the presumptive front-runner.
The democratic socialist set off a media frenzy last week after he said convicted felons, including terrorists, should have to right to vote in American elections.
“So, I believe people who commit crimes, they pay the price and they get out of jail, they certainly should have the right to vote,” the Vermont senator said. “But, I believe even if they are in jail, they’re paying the price to society, but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.”
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