© CNN MoneyDan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, recently slashed his Salary to give his employees a minimum salary of $70k/yr
You've got to spend money to make money and a generous CEO is making a lot more money a week after he invested in his employees. The company, Gravity Payments, has been flooded with new business since CEO Dan Price announced he'd raise every one of his employee's pay to $70,000 a year — and slashed his own annual pay from $1 million to the same $70,000.
"I'm actually shocked by the reaction from businesses," Price told
CNN Money. "It has me on cloud nine."
Price says the credit card transaction processing company he founded has recorded the best week for acquiring new clients in the 11 years since he founded it. He says dozens of new clients have signed on with the company and he's thinking about expanding his staff to 120 people.
Good News Network reported
last week Price announced he was raising the pay of 70 of his workers after reading a study on how having extra money made a difference in the lives of people earning under $70,000 a year. The raise doubled the salaries of 30 workers.
And more people want to work for his company. Gravity Payments received 3,500 job applications in the past week for two open positions — roughly five times what they usually get for an opening.
You can watch the full interview with Dan Price on
the original article.
Comment: The media attention alone is well worth the money he reallocated. This kind of behavior is how you really invest in your business. Perhaps we'll see more of it in the future as this story spreads.
Slave wages just won't cut it anymore. If anything, the frontline workers who actually bring in the profits and do the actual work should be compensated on par with the CEO. When a CEO earns 400X what the lowest paid employee receives, that is the ultimate in exploitation.
It is telling that the CBC didn't run this story.