I wish it was me – a CEO of an Idaho business stunned employees after declaring they were to receive a $10,000 pay rise, with a minimum salary of $70,000 to be achieved within five years.
Gravity Payments, a Seattle-based credit card processing company, recently acquired ChargeItPro in Eagle, Idaho.
After moving into a new work-space, Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price flew in to say hello to the employees – as well as announce the huge pay increase coming their way.
Prior to the acquisition, ChargeItPro employees were earning under $30,000.
However, following the takeover, employees on $40,000-per-year – the company’s minimum salary – will receive an immediate $10,000 bump in pay. The minimum salary will also rise to a staggering $70,000 by 2024.
As reported by ABC7 News, Price said:
I’m kind of heartbroken right now by the vast consolidation of wealth and power that’s happening, and in addition how that’s affecting our decisions around climate.
I’m sick of being part of the problem, I want to be part of the solution. Previously, I was making a million dollars a year and people working for me were making $30,000 a year and that’s wrong, I was feeding into the problem.
In 2015, the 35-year-old CEO announced that his entire Seattle office would receive a minimum salary of $70,000, as well as taking an ’80 to 90 per cent’ cut in his own pay.
According to Price, this will allow employees ‘to make choices that are in alignment with their values not having them be reliant on money’.
Price also introduced a $70,000 minimum salary to offices in Boise – where the cost of living is lower than Seattle. Unsurprisingly, the response was full of elation, ‘high-fives and hugs’.
As reported by ABC7 News, Price said:
I heard from somebody who was a single parent, that they were not necessarily going to need to work two jobs anymore… and they were going to be a better parent.
The CEO is a huge endorser of equal pay across the US – he says his business has proved it can work.
He’s been widely celebrated, winning a number of accolades for his work – at the age of 26, he was awarded the National SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year, presented by President Barack Obama.
Since rolling out the new salaries in Seattle, he’s noticed a seismic difference. ‘We went from having zero to two babies born per year to having over 30 babies born,’ he said.
While conceding it’s hard for smaller businesses to take on the same ethos, he says it’s ‘surprising and a bit disturbing’ that the big companies haven’t followed suit in redistributing profits to the employees.
Price explained:
I’m just shocked at the lack of willingness to do this, especially in big companies in corporate America. We’ve proven that this can work.
Any company that is making over a million dollars a year in profit absolutely should be doing this. The inequality needs to stop.
Are you taking anybody on, Mr Price?
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.