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Outdoor recreation contributed $374 billion to the American economy last year, or three times the economic activity generated by oil and gas development. But the hundreds of thousands of workers who created that wealth — the raft guides, ski lift operators, restaurant and hotel workers, along with countless others — have long heard low wages justified by the old quip, “You’re paid in sunsets.”
The sunsets will still be there in 2022, but many workers across the 640 million acres of federal land in the United States can also expect to be paid in a little more cash, including thousands of guides and hospitality workers in Utah.
In April, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will set the minimum wage for federal contractors at $15 an hour, more than double the current federal minimum wage of $7.25. The order is projected to raise wages for 327,000 workers.
(AP Photo/John Raoux)A $15 federal minimum wage has long been a goal of progressive and labor movements in the United States. In this Feb. 16, 2021, file photo, Cristian Cardona, right, an employee at a McDonald's, attends a rally for a $15 an hour minimum wage in Orlando, Fla.
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