CEO Cuts His Pay, Raises All Workers' Pay To $70,000 Per Year Minimum

[Unknown Beatle]

More like Dan Price, please. This is truly putting your money where your mouth is. Gravity Payments is a credit card processing firm located in Seattle, and Dan Price is the CEO. Mr. Price has decided to do more than think or talk about income inequality. He's taking action.

The first thing he did was cut his own pay to $70,000 per year.

The next thing he did was give every employee, whether in the mail room or human resources, a raise so that their minimum wage will be $70,000 per year.

New York Times:

“The market rate for me as a C.E.O. compared to a regular person is ridiculous, it’s absurd,” said Mr. Price, who said his main extravagances were snowboarding and picking up the bar bill. He drives a 12-year-old Audi, which he received in a barter for service from the local dealer.

More: Crooks and Liars

[Omaha Steve]

1. .

[eridani]

2. With all the discussion of various kinds of privilege, it's important to remember

--that what counts is your ethical values and your actions, not what level of privilege you happen to have.

[Orsino]

49. And yet privilege itself seems to be the main problem.

That there are wonderful exceptions like this CEO does not change the fact that privilege erodes ethical values and perverts actions.

[eridani]

54. The point is that the choice to work to make your privilege available to everyone--

--is always there, regardless of how much extra privilege you have.

[Alkene]

3. A couple of video blurbs on Price

[JDPriestly]

24. Wow! That guy is impressive.

And he is another bit of evidence supporting my theory that children let us know early in their lives what they want to do when they grow up.

[WillTwain]

38. Wow, Wow

[bemildred]

4. My kind of guy.

Back in the day I found that once I got over $80K or so, I didn't really know what to do with it all. But my tastes are simple and cheap.

And I'll bet his business does well.

[Rolando]

42. Seattle's a Different Place

One could almost live on $70,000 there.

[bemildred]

46. Yeah, "success" can take a lot of maintenance.

And all those "successful" people tend to be pretty high-maintenance too.

On the other hand I started out in Eureka, CA in the 1960s, and my rent at the times was $50/month for an upstairs 1 bd apartment with a big clawfoot tub, gas and water paid.

[Rolando]

55. I recently heard that

a 2/1 house in Ballard area of Seattle sold for $700,000+, with rising offers coming in. Eureka even now looks beautiful. Wonderful town. Go to the center of the city and drive outward, and you will pass through the history of American cities and towns, shown in architectural details.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. This is the kind of post that should have hundreds of recs.

Good on him.

[n2doc]

6. I'll bet he has no difficulty recruiting and keeping great employees

And I'll bet their productivity more than makes up for any wage gain.

[B Calm]

7. Hopefully this will catch on!

[Mnpaul]

35. This is the path to a booming economy

They need to exactly opposite of what they are doing now. If enough employers did this, they would all make more money.

[City Lights]

8. Way to go, Mr. Price!

Wonder if they are hiring...

[B Calm]

9. My last employer is ranked 122 of the richest people in the USA. Pretty good for a small businessman

with companies all over the world all with less than 500 employees each. The sob pays his employees poverty wages too!

[99Forever]

10. A very rare bird, indeed.

Think any others will join him?

[PowerToThePeople]

11. Socialism!!# damn reds!!

[F4lconF16]

20. Umm...

Not to be a downer on what is a very good story, but that is most explicitly not socialism. He is still a capitalist, he is still the employer who decides what his workers will get. He, not they, make the decisions. And also this, from the article:

"As much as I’m a capitalist, there is nothing in the market that is making me do it"

He explicitly states that he is the one in control of this. Socialism is the exact opposite. All this is is a decent capitalist, of which there are far too few. Hopefully this ends up working out--80% of expected profits is huge, and there was some (limited) very good discussion on Reddit earlier about how this might just be a publicity thing or at least a limited term experiment. I doubt it, looking into his history, but I don't trust any of the employing class or corporate owners. He'll earn my trust when this is still being followed through 4 or 5 years from now.

I am all for socialism. But...this is not it. Nowhere close, actually.

[PowerToThePeople]

27. true

it was meant more as a "this is what the right wingers will say about it' response. That was why all the exclamation marks and mistakes.

You are very correct In what you say. There is no communal ownership of the business, it is still a capitalist enterprise, just with more equality of pay scale.

[F4lconF16]

32. Ah, my apologies!

Me ↓

[PowerToThePeople]

33. could be me too

But regardless, it is good to clear it up. Still capitalism, just with a more equal pay scale.

[cui bono]

36. Capitalism with moralism.

Moralism which the gop/bible thumpers proclaim to care about but never actually embrace.

[appalachiablue]

48. +1 !

[marym625]

12. yay!

I want to work there! !

[Initech]

13. How do I get a job working for this guy?

[SoLeftIAmRight]

14. First thought - Onion

Glad this is real

[appalachiablue]

28. Same, thought it was The Joke du jour. What a wonderful surprise!

[GoneFishin]

15. Fanfreakintastic. This guy is kind of a hero.

[packman]

16. Damn-praise Mr. Price

Gotta man crush on the guy.

[Plucketeer]

17. What can I say???

This guy should be FRONT AND CENTER as an example of what the word "fairness" means!

[99th_Monkey]

18. But, but .. what about the greedy stockholders?

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/in-shareholder-say-on-pay-votes-more-whispers-than-shouts/?_r=0

[appalachiablue]

29. The overworn bull about companies 'can't & are hostage to stockholders' IS being debunked!

Hurrah!

[hifiguy]

19. Kick and Rec

for a guy that gets it.

[WillyT]

21. K & R !!!

[hankthecrank]

22. This is good

Wanted to make a joke.

One I'm not that funny.

But what were you thinking. Now the rest of us peons are going to want that deal. Lol

[JDPriestly]

23. A guy who loves his work. He is very fortunate.

Money really isn't everything. I've done a lot of jobs. Loving the work you do is the most important thing. You need money to live so you work, but if you are lucky enough to be doing something you love, the money is not as important as it is when you have to do a job you don't like.

And working with good people is a important provided you can earn enough to live on doing it.

We need enough to live on. But we don't need to be millionaires or earn huge salaries.

[Moostache]

25. I could not agree more.

Money really isn't everything. I've done a lot of jobs. Loving the work you do is the most important thing. You need money to live so you work, but if you are lucky enough to be doing something you love, the money is not as important as it is when you have to do a job you don't like.

I have held positions that paid me very well by any rational standard but were abhorrent to me personally and I could not get out of them fast enough. Made me wonder on more than one occasion what the hell I was thinking even accepting them in the first place...

I am currently blessed to be in a position I love, doing work I enjoy and with a company that I respect and like being a part of...I might even be able to hardball my employer into a better compensation package, if I chose; and I KNOW I could get higher paying positions in other areas, even in a tepid economy, I just don't want to.

I wish everyone could be lucky enough to love what they do and to enjoy not only the hours from 5 PM to 6 AM but their whole days, very Pollyanna I know...but it would be a marvelous world to behold!

[colsohlibgal]

26. More Like Him Please!

CEO to average worker ratio has gotten out of control, it's one key element in income inequality and other things like insane health care costs.

[appalachiablue]

30. +100

[Sunriser13]

31. Frickin' Awesome, Dan!!

One thing for sure - an employee better be doing a good job, as expected, 'cause there are now literally hundreds ready to step in for any vacancies!! Not just for the money, either; he really seems a great person for which to work.

Hell, I'd move if I could if guaranteed a position there... Seattle is a tad high on the cost-of-living scale, but outskirts can be quite a bit less...

[Doctor_J]

34. When you see this kind of news, you know before looking it's coming from the west coast

there are a few isolated spots in the US that hae not been infested by Fox News.

[Alkene]

39. Price isn't the only Seattle CEO who gets it.

Don't get me wrong, Seattle zillionaires aren't generally much different than anywhere else, but there are a few standouts; author, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer comes to mind:

"The fundamental law of capitalism is that if workers have no money, businesses have no customers. That’s why the extreme, and widening, wealth gap in our economy presents not just a moral challenge, but an economic one, too. In a capitalist system, rising inequality creates a death spiral of falling demand that ultimately takes everyone down."

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-06-19/the-capitalist-s-case-for-a-15-minimum-wage

"Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution."

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html#.VS2hiBz3-iw

[appalachiablue]

47. +10 Yes, NICK HANAUER of Seattle is great. His Politico article, 'The Pitchforks are Coming for Us

Plutocrats' last summer was bold, a warning to his 'fellow zillionaires'. He's also a member of The Patriotic Millionaires Group and does some media appearances. An avowed capitalist but he speaks about the serious economic imbalance here and the very dangerous direction we've been going in for some time. Years ago I visited Seattle and almost moved there; I so wish I had.

**HURRAH FOR SEATTLE'S BEST WEALTHY BUSINESSOWNERS!**

(Please consider expanding East, and South! One can hope...)

[madokie]

37. Thats a man after my heart

Thanks for bring it to DU so we can all relish in the thought that there are good people in this world,

[karadax]

40. Most if not all of the 120 employees are already salaried.

I am extremely happy for those that gain from this. I pray the company stays strong in order to lift up more people that really need it.

Now how do we get hourly workers paid $36 an hour ? That's the hard part.

[RecoveringJournalist]

41. K & R

To the max, yo.

[Thespian2]

43. Shall we wait

for news that Jamie Dimon has done the same thing?

[JanMichael]

44. Major Barbara, Shaw, had Undershaft doing almost the same.

I am a nasty commie, period, but if all major companies did this I would applaud them all.

Sadly the drips in the pond and the Fabian ideals are weak at best.

[IronLionZion]

45. This CEO sounds like a socialist! Let's ban all CEOs!!!

We should tell the tea party supporters that Obama and Hillary sometimes meet with CEOs and see how quickly they turn against CEOs.

[moondust]

50. Exemplary.

Get rid of the supergreedy sociopaths and psychopaths who do everything they can to fuck their employees--who keep the place in business--out of a decent living in order to lavishly reward themselves and their "investors" riding around on a golf course somewhere. Absurd indeed, Mr. Price.

[Cosmic Kitten]

51. Alert the shareholders! SOCIALIST!!!111!!11!11

[SummerSnow]

52. The ' Price is Right' .....see what I did there?

[appalachiablue]

53. K & R Keep this Kicked!