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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
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.
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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
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
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
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
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
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
Image credits: danpriceseattle
Image credits: danpriceseattle
The CEO constantly revises his company’s salary policy
Image credits: danpriceseattle
And people are applauding him for it
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What do you think ?
Lauren Caswell 3 years ago (edited)
He is the antithesis of Jeff Bezos, he even has the reversed hairdo!
Natalie KS 3 years ago
He's like the Magna Carta of CEOs. Bezos is wet cardboard.
Load More Replies...
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.
Moo Moo Futch 3 years ago
This is what Bezos could do for SO MANY and yet he goes to space to make up for his tiny d**k. Poor Lauren Sanchez....
Natalie KS 3 years ago
I'm sure she's doing fine with his microdick and his billions.
Load More Replies... Lauren Caswell 3 years ago (edited)
He is the antithesis of Jeff Bezos, he even has the reversed hairdo!
Natalie KS 3 years ago
He's like the Magna Carta of CEOs. Bezos is wet cardboard.
Load More Replies... 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.
Moo Moo Futch 3 years ago
This is what Bezos could do for SO MANY and yet he goes to space to make up for his tiny d**k. Poor Lauren Sanchez....
Natalie KS 3 years ago
I'm sure she's doing fine with his microdick and his billions.
Load More Replies...
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