About 5,000 people who work at six Florida Seminole hotel and casino properties are getting big pay raises next month, as part of a $100 million investment Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming are making in their U.S. employees to help them cope with the rising cost of living.
Effective in October, employees ranging from housekeepers and front-desk employees to security personnel and other non-tipped workers will see their wages increase by as much as 60%. Some employees’ hourly wages will jump from $12 to $18, an amount nearly twice the U.S. minimum wage of of $7.25 an hour and $8 more than the Florida minimum wage of $10 an hour.
Hard Rock has 20,000 employees in the U.S. and at least half of them will receive the wage increases, company officials said.
Included among that group will be about 2,600 employees working at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, according to a Seminole Gaming spokesman.
Hard Rock Chairman and Seminole Gaming CEO Jim Allen credited the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Hard Rock’s owner, for making this significant investment in the people who work for the enterprise.
In addition to the pending pay hikes, many of the company’s workers also received bonuses during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“We have changed people’s lives and I’m proud to be a part of it,” Allen said.
Of Seminole Gaming’s 10,000 Florida employees, nearly half of them work at the three South Florida casino and hotel properties, including Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.