Thousands of Walt Disney World employees would receive raises under a new contract settlement between the company and a group of unions that increases the minimum starting pay to $15 an hour by 2021, capping nine months of tense wage negotiations that led to large protests in Central Florida.

The unions, which represent 38,000 service employees at Walt Disney World — about half the total number working at the park — announced the agreement in a statement on Saturday, calling it “historic.”

Most of the workers make less than $11 an hour, said Jeremy Haicken, the president of Local 737, the largest of the six unions at the negotiating table.

Jessica Lella, 24, a union steward and ride operator at the park’s DinoLand U.S.A., has been working for Disney full time for nearly six years and currently earns $10 an hour, the same rate as a new hire. Now that wages are set to increase, she said, she plans to stay at the company and hopes to start a family in the near future.