The Park City ski patrollers are on strike, asking for $23 an hour. Vail Resorts wants to pay them $21.

These are the people who keep us safe on the slopes and take care of us when we are injured on the hill. These folks are trained professionals.

Vail Resorts wants to pay them the equivalent of $43,680 per year. (That is assuming they worked all year as patrollers, which they don't.) According to the US Census Bureau, the median income in the United States today is over $80,000. So Vail Resorts wants to pay some of its most important, guest-facing employees approximately half of what the median wage earner earns in the United States.

I stand with the ski patrollers, and I encourage you to do so as well. I will not purchase anything from Vail Resorts including food, beverage, and gear, until it does the right thing and increases the pay for its patrollers at Park City. Hopefully, our locals will also benefit from settling this dispute in the patrollers' favor.