CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff’s Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Dan Price is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gravity Payments, a credit card processing and financial services company. In 2015, the company made headlines all over the world when Price announced that his employees would receive a minimum salary of $70,000.

To finance this move, Dan cut his own $1.1M pay by 90%. At the time, this decision received a lot of criticism but 6 years later, the company is thriving and Price said it has made him happier and a better boss.

Meet Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments, who just celebrated 6 years of having cut his own pay by a million dollars to increase his employees’ wages

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: danpriceseattle

When Price made the announcement to his 120-member staff, inviting NBC News and The New York Times to cover it, he caused a huge stir. A movement even. There were 500 million interactions on social media and NBC’s video has become the most shared in network history. Also, Gravity Payments was flooded with stories from thankful workers elsewhere who suddenly got raises from converted bosses.

But most importantly, Price had poured so much gas into the debate on how much should workers be paid, it continues to rage across the corporate landscape all over the world.

Recently, he turned to Twitter to explain what inspired him to make this bold move

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

So far, Price stands out from the crowd like a white crow. A report by the Economic Policy Institute states that the average CEO pay is 271 times the nearly $58,000 annual average pay of the typical American worker.

Even though some argue that CEO pay is based on experience and high demands that come with the role, the study finds that’s actually not the case.

“CEOs are getting more because of their power to set pay, not because they are more productive or have special talent or have more education,” the report says. “Exorbitant CEO pay means that the fruits of economic growth are not going to ordinary workers, since the higher CEO pay does not reflect correspondingly higher output.”

For comparison, in 1978, CEO earnings were roughly 30 times the typical worker’s salary.

In the UK, the bosses of FTSE 100 companies now earn 117 times the salary of their average worker.

Gravity Payments is thriving

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanPriceSeattle

At first, Price hoped for widespread, structural change. But it didn’t happen.

“Boy, was I wrong,” he says. “I’ve really failed in that regard. And it’s changed my perspective on things because I really believed that through the actions that I did and that other people could do, that we could turn the tide on runaway income inequality.”

But maybe that’s not the end of it?

As a thank you, Dan’s employees bought him a new Tesla

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: danpriceseattle

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: danpriceseattle

The CEO constantly revises his company’s salary policy

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: danpriceseattle

And people are applauding him for it

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: anotherjessca

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: PaulNewland15

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: Wise_old_Dan

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: DanBorsch

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: blueyedmexicana

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: NSouthsidempls

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: jr_sopher

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: Volcanna87

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

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CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: ha_vee_air

CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

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CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

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CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

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CEO Who Took A 90% Pay Cut To Raise His Staff's Minimum Salary To $70,000 Shares How It Changed Him And His Team

Image credits: ajmahlsteezy

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

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As a Visual Editor at Bored Panda, I indulge in the joy of curating delightful content, from adorable pet photos to hilarious memes, all while nurturing my wanderlust and continuously seeking new adventures and interests—sometimes thrilling, sometimes daunting, but always exciting!

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What do you think ?

POST

Lauren Caswell 3 years ago (edited)

He is the antithesis of Jeff Bezos, he even has the reversed hairdo!

35points

Natalie KS 3 years ago

He's like the Magna Carta of CEOs. Bezos is wet cardboard.

3points

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James016 3 years ago

It's amazing what happens when you treat your staff like human beings. There were a few managers in my company that expected staff to give 100% of their time to their jobs. All day every day. They are not here anymore. The new owners have put an emphasis on staff well being rather than expecting us to work 24/7.

12points