High ski-pass prices, low wages

Last spring, I was shocked at how Park City Mountain and Deer Valley, our local ski resorts, had jacked up their season pass prices in relation to the consumer price index (CPI).

Over the past two seasons, they had gone up by more than 5 percent a year or 10 times more than the CPI. This morning I heard on the radio that Utah's ski resorts were struggling to fill thousand of seasonal jobs, which they were able to satisfy in the past by relying upon overseas workers coming on special J-1 visa (foreign work exchange program, for college students).

Today, these are under threat by Trump and many members of congress that have all criticized the visa program, saying that companies should hire American workers first. Of course these jobs are seasonal and pay close to minimum wage, so no locals or even other American want them.

Which leads me to wonder that with a 5 to 6 percent increase in their pass prices that must generate a volume comprised between $120 to $140 million, the annual “hike” in lift ticket prices amounts a least to $6 or $7 million.

Instead of stashing this extra profit in the resorts bottom line, this should go a long way into attracting more local and American ski resort workers by paying them well, recruiting at home and relying less on dirt-cheap, foreign labor...