Vail Resorts Lifts Wage Freeze

DENVER— Vail Resorts has ended a wage freeze it put in place last fall, according to a report in the Denver Post. Employees were told by management that all those whose wages were frozen will soon see a 3% raise because business projections were above what was anticipated, the report said. Adam Aron, CEO of Vail Resorts; Andy Daly, president; Jim Thompson, development president; and Ed Mace, head of Vails new Rockresorts hotel chain, told employees that the company is “in much better shape than we had any right to reasonably hope for just a few months ago.” However, the report noted that the companys stock has not fully recovered from the almost $7 drop it suffered after the Sept. 11 attacks. Vail Resorts stock was close to $20 a share going into September. It declined to less than $13 that month and has slowly recovered to about $15 a share. Vail Resorts had a $25 million loss during the final quarter of its fiscal year in August, September and October, about $5 million more than the company usually loses in the off-season fall months, the report said. But expenses were held down by freezing the annual raises that usually come on Oct. 1, according to Aron. He said performance through January “has been fabulous, and this is a direct result of the work of our employees.”