CEO Who Took $1M Paycut To Give All Employees $70K Minimum Salary In 2015 Explains How It Affected The Company
You could say it all started when Dan Price was hiking with his friend Valerie in the Cascade mountains that tower over Seattle. As they walked, Valerie told Dan that her life was in chaos, that her landlord had increased her monthly rent by $200 and she was struggling to pay her bills. Dan got really angry. After all, Valerie — who he had once dated — had served for 11 years in the military, doing two tours in Iraq, and was now working 50 hours a week in two jobs.
“She is somebody for whom service, honor and hard work just defines who she is as a person,” he told BBC. Even though Valerie was earning around $40,000 a year, in Seattle that wasn’t enough to afford a decent home.
Dan, on the other hand, was a millionaire. He set up his company, Gravity Payments, in his teens, and it had about 2,000 customers and was estimated to be worth millions of dollars. He was earning $1.1M a year, but Valerie really made Dan realize that a lot of his staff might be struggling. So he set out to change that.
Image credits: danpriceseattle
While reading on happiness, Dan stumbled upon a paper, saying that additional income can make a significant difference in a person’s emotional well-being up to the point when they earn about $75,000 a year.
So, he increased the salaries for all of his 120 employees raising the minimum salary to $70,000 and slashed his $1 million salary by 90% in order to make it happen.
Many praised the brave decision, but it has had its fair share of doubters and haters as well. Recently, Dan shared a powerful message for all of them.
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
Image credits: DanPriceSeattle
“People are starving or being laid off or being taken advantage of, so that somebody can have a penthouse at the top of a tower in New York with gold chairs,” Dan said. “We’re glorifying greed all the time as a society, in our culture. And, you know, the Forbes list is the worst example – ‘Bill Gates has passed Jeff Bezos as the richest man.’ Who cares!?”
The belief is that when employees are not preoccupied with the problem of how to make ends meet, they are more focused on their jobs, and happier because they work for a company that recognizes their value. And apparently it’s working.
It makes Dan very happy. “What I got back in return was better than anything I could have ever imagined, and was truly exciting and shocking in some ways,” he told the afore-criticized Forbes. “What I got back in return is, we went from instead of having zero first-time homeowners per year, now we have many first-time homeowners here at Gravity, and that is so exciting to me.”
Secondly, the rate for things like retirement, for people at Gravity, has also skyrocketed. But the absolute best thing for the CEO out of instituting the increased wage has been hearing about how they went from close to zero first-time parents every year at Gravity to about 20 babies born to families there each year.
“I can’t think of anything better that I could get in return out of it than that, and that’s the impact. That’s the legacy. Because, those babies, they carry with them almost infinite potential, solving some of the existential crises of humanity, curing cancer, solving things like global warming. You name it. Who knows what those babies are going to do, and probably I won’t be around to find out all the cascading effects that will come from that.”
His tweets sparked an important discussion on the way companies treat their employees
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Share on FacebookCEOs and management shouldn't be allowed to make more than 10 times their lowest paid employee.
Yes some CEOs have earned the extra wage above the regular employees, BUT IF IT WASN'T FOR THOSE EMPLOYEES, they wouldn’t be able to make that larger wage in the first place. Helping those that have helped them is an excellent way to show their employees that they value and care about them. ~ WIN-WIN in my eyes. ~
Load More Replies...What employers fail to understand is that when you overpay your employees, they will overwork. When you underpay them, they will underwork. Keeping people happy in their work environment is what brings the sales up and the money coming in. But what do I know? I'm an underpaid employee who gives minimum effort at work...
A decent salary and/or hourly wage is more than money in the bank. It say you are of valve. Without you my enterprise would not have successfully made it from paper to fruition. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” ....it's called Teamwork
Load More Replies...Jeff Bezos will one day be worth a trillion dollars. I ask myself what the hell are going to need that much money for? You could have a nice house in every state and still be a billionaire. You could take a grand vacation to Maldives every summer and still be a billionaire. If greed had a face it would be Jeff Bezos. Companies like amazon would fire people and put them on the streets as long as Jeff Bezos stays a billionaire. Money isn’t going to follow you when you die. It’s disgusting to treat people this way. It’s clear you don’t value workers just the numbers they produce. Capitalism sucks.
Jeff Bezos owns 11% of Amazon. The next three largest investors are mutual fund companies - Vanguard, BlackRock, and Advisor Group. (If you have an S&P 500-tracking mutual fund in your 401k or IRA, 3% of that is Amazon.)
Load More Replies...Gee, an employer who says, "My employees are valuable to my own success" is somehow SOCIALISM? I think people need to consult some dictionaries on the definition of socialism....
It is the "equal" wages part that is socialism. Everyone paid as much since they work as much. Not trying to count in the input they haul in. Setting a minimum salary is of course a pretty lame sort of socialism, but still - I guess it is newsworthy in the USA.
Load More Replies...Besides the obvious benefits of the money, this sort of policy shows that the employer realizes the value of his employees and how much they contributed to their success. But even more, it shows the employees that they are RESPECTED.
Just shows that you won't go bust when you pay your employees enough money to live a decent life without having to worry about how they are going to pay for their car repairs AND next month rent but instead actually accumulate some wealth.
I think the people saying 'This is not socialism' or 'This is just capitalism working well' are in denial. This is a glimpse at what socialism does, and what would be prevalent if it were enforced, rather than just waiting for the most competitive people on the planet to suddenly be magnanimous - everyone is happier, including the guy who has less money but doesn't have to worry about a mutiny.
People are saying it's not socialism because it isn't socialism. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful thing he's done, and he should be praised, it's just not socialism. The workers still don't own the means of production, they just get a decent renumeration for the job they do.
Load More Replies...Treating this as some sort of flowering of new wisdom is a bit over the top. I've worked for many tech companies over the last 3 decades, and every single one of them paid excellent salaries, treated employees extremely well, and had solid forward-thinking leadership teams. Why? Because finding talent is hard. Competition for it is fierce. When you have it, you hang onto it. Treat people badly and you'll pay for it - they'll go work somewhere else. No company survives an exodus of good talent.
Why are US Americans so afraid of socialism? Ok, I get why rich people would, but even the poor seam to hate it
Brainwashing that it's "Evil Empire" and means toilet paper shortages and working for nothing. Don't ask me how that works, I was taught in the US and know better, but... I guess poor people love to listen to the rich? I honestly can't figure it out, either.
Load More Replies...All the comments about socialism have confused me. They way I understood it is in a capitalist society everyone has to work and fight to earn and get what they need. It's very competitive and that is great for innovation. In a coomunist society (as intended) it's supposed to be everyone working together and the benefits spread equally to everyone. And socialism is the half-way point between he two extremes. The market is divided down the middle, stuff like police and health is paid into by all the citizens so costs will be free to low cost for everyone and then stuff like furniture and clothing is capitalist and people can fight and make their fortune. The people in this thread seem to have a totally different understanding... so I'm confused what do they actually think socialism is?
They don't nkow what socialism is. That's the problem
Load More Replies...Can we please have Dan Price start a new competitive company to Amazon? I'm imagining all the people coming over from Amazon for a decent pay and LIFE and having all the tools necessary to rebuild a better Amazon. I love the efficiency of Amazon, it is top of the line. But we need to begin adding humanity to everything we do. It's what we are in the first place, how has it been so easy to forget our basic humanity and right to peace and life and a living wage??
I have been promised to get a proper full time contract in March. It should have started in July, now it's almost September and I still got nothing (I work as an independent consultant but it has disadvantages that I don't want to accept anymore). You can bet it has a tremendous negative effect on my work and how much I'll be willing to do for my job (or the upper management). I've been a loyal employee for over 5 years. Why employers don't realize these things is beyond me, congratulations to Dan.
Your employer DOES realize that you've been a loyal employee for 5 years, which is why they aren't following through on their promises to you. Because they think you will keep sucking it up and waiting for them to treat you better.
Load More Replies...People seem to think that the capitalism-socialism division is bipolar when it is, in fact, a continuum. Distributing the profits more evenly is indeed a socialist thing to do, but it doesn't mean his business is completely socialist, it's just more socialist than it was before. I also get a sense that many people feel the need to justify that this is not socialism, because socialism is BAD and what he did is good.
Socialism isn't actually inherantly bad. Communism is different.
Load More Replies...The amount of respect this CEO deserves is beyond measure. One of the more disgusting results of this pandemic has been the rich getting richer while the people who made them wealthy in the good times suffer. Humanity is lost on the wealthy.
Socialism is 'public' (usually government) control of businesses. Regulation is socialist. Government ownership is socialist. Mandatory minimum wages are socialist. Cooperatives are a structure where the ownership of capital is seated with someone other than outside investors or owner-operators and ownership depends on remaining in that group - typically either workers (workers cooperatives) or customers (farmers cooperatives, utility cooperatives, mutual insurance companies, and credit unions being the most common in the US). They are only socialist if they are enforced by government edict, if they are voluntarily organized then they are just another aspect of capitalism. Best Western, CHS, Land O'Lakes, ShopRite, and Healthpartners are all coops, and all very capitalist at heart.
Load More Replies...It's a pity that more employers and companies haven't got the same mindset. Employees would be more focused because they aren't worried about mounting debts and keeping a roof over their head. Big, rich bosses mean nothing when they are killing off their own workforce by greed.
Just an FYI, this guy announced the $75k for everyone after his business partner (and brother) sued him for lying about his salary (he was drawing $1.1M a year, it was supposed to be $350k). For his defense he tried to use the avg salary of his employees (as an avg salary of $75k is comparable to a CEO w $1.1M salary). Translation = you all got played. This guy did this to hide his criminal activity and you propped him up as a messiah.
Your timeline is backwards. The lawsuit was filed 11 days after Dan Price made his announcement - not before, as you claim. The case itself wasn't about Dan's salary at all, but rather that Lucus felt his rights as a minority shareholder had been violated.
Load More Replies...I just commented on Facebook but will paraphrase here and say that there should be many more employers like Dan! He has done an exceptionally wonderful thing for his employees, bless him. Those who think otherwise are just negative thinkers. Dan is a wonderful man and has a kind and generous, thoughtful nature. What is negative about those virtues may I ask. Stop being so negative when someone does something good, even astoundingly great, like Dan has done. You are a WONDERFUL man, DAN!!
Another example of what terrible, cold-hearted people so many conservative "Christians" are.
Wasn't it this guy that got sued because it took out too much money from the company? And then raised every employees wage to twerk the news stories? Anyone who can confirm or deny this?
Why dig up the dirt that has been proven a total lie in court? It's also quite strange that you are asking for confirmation of your gossip while a 15 second search shows that you're just another troll. https://www.inc.com/paul-keegan/dan-price-gravity-lawsuit-win.html. You just not only proved you are a troll, you also proved that you are a stupid troll.
Load More Replies...I'm a Brit, living in Britain. I used to work for a nationalised company. In Britain we've sometimes been a little bit socialist. Socialism is about the state owning the means of production. As far as I can see there has never been anything remotely resembling socialism in the USA, and a single company can't be socialist! It's a nonsense. Likewise the idea that your Democratic Party is 'socialist is simply puzzling to us Brits. We'd put them on the centre right, with middle-ground Conservatives. 'Socialism' seems to be a meaningless term people use to insult people they don't like. That said, at municipal/township level I believe there are cooperative schemes in the USA.
Aren't some companies, or at least their boards and CEOs beholden to the share holders to keep profits as high as possible and pay dividends? It's one of the things I think is wrong with the stock market and also a detriment to many American companies. Sometimes, showing the biggest profit is not the best for your long term success.
This should be happening more. Also, socialist philosophy is not inherantly evil or bad, nor is it the same as communism. Good on the CEO, why can't Jeff Bezos do this.
Assuming that all 120 employees made under $70K, then the average increase per employee was just over $7,000, meaning the average salary was over $60K to begin with. What he did was nice, but it isn't viable for the majority of businesses, particularly the small businesses that employ 48% of the workers in the United States.
Very interesting to say the least, I have said, there is so much money in the world, it's simply in the wrong hands, bottom line, it's all about Greed, Dan Price, you are a gem, if only all companies followed your plan, the world would be a happier place, working for low wages, and difficult to make ends meet, Stress Kills !!!
Excellent!! I've always said the problem with Reagan's "Trickle Down Economics" was they forgot one thing -- GREED.
P.S. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. If employees are properly valued, you get an engaged, committed workforce.
I don’t understand why Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that Socialism = the work of the devil. That’s probably what accounts for so many of the problems in that country. Socialism = fairness, that’s all. Treat people as you want to be treated yourself and everyone is happier. What’s so hard about that?
Just an FYI, this guy made the $75k announcement after being sued by his business partner, he was paying himself $1.1M a year (salary should have been around $350k based on similar businesses).
Those who perform the work necessary, take great care and pride in doing their best because you do less is below the standard the hold for themselves, is something that any employer should never overlook. Employees who are made to feel like they have to work their a*s off and turn over everything to the pimps in corporate suites with secretaries and vacation homes and a cooks and maids who do all the little unpleasant tasks they feel is beneath their bother, and have never run a load of laundry in that fancy new bathroom.
There's an old (capitalist?) saying that "you can't argue with success". My only problem with this is the reported numbers. They don't add up. 120 people with $70K salaries is over $8 Million... 8 times the $1 Million he gave up.
And if you divide the $1 Million he gave up by 120, he gave them each about $8333. i think some details are missing. Oh yeah...as a retired, laisse-faire capitalist business owner, what he did is not socialism.
Load More Replies...Can I work for you? I've worked years fighting my way to make 41k a year.
Anyone else has this not-so-good feeling in his/her gut when the media portrays a CEO as a saint? These are rarely end up well...
Yes. Glassdoor had terrible reviews about this company, some even called the work environment toxic. His brother sued over financial mismanagement. His ex-wife called him abusive and now 2 women are accusing him of sexual assault. Everyone associated with him had bad things to say about him. His only cheerleaders were 1. Media 2. Social media 3. Himself.
Load More Replies...Wait, I remember reading about this several years ago and it failed b/c the employees took advantage of him.
The problem is there are too many people who are more greedy than they are smart. And most of them are not trying to grow a company, they're just playing with the stock for their own short-term gain. Another investor did this - he tried to lower the CEO's pay, but the Board wouldn't do it. So he got on the Board and got the salary lowered and the other employees' salaries raised. Within a year, the CEO was making more than he was before they lowered his salary, stock was up & so was turnover. Richard Hanauer, the only original non-family investor in Amazon (and many other companies now), did a TED talk on this. He said if leaders try to raise employees salaries so much, their Board would fire them, since other companies are not doing the same. He said among most businesspeople, they consider doing anything extra not required by law is not good business sense. https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocrats_the_pitchforks_are_coming?language=en
F**K ALL YOUR NARROW MINDED BRAINWASHED VIEWS AND STOP LABELING S**T A PEJORATIVE TERM (AND ONLY SO BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN MISNOMER-ED). CALL IT NOTHING BUT ACKNOWLEDGED THE FACTS AND APPLY THE LESSONS.
If you ate to state that you don't agree with our views please do us a favour and NOT SWEAR thank you
Load More Replies...Why? He shares his wealth with his employees and in return gets better business results making him even richer. Everyone in his right mind would prefer this scenario over the common one : Employees having to work for minimum wages that are barely enough to feed their family so they have to apply for food stamps while the rich 3% just add more money to the 90% of wealth they are already owning.
Load More Replies...CEOs and management shouldn't be allowed to make more than 10 times their lowest paid employee.
Yes some CEOs have earned the extra wage above the regular employees, BUT IF IT WASN'T FOR THOSE EMPLOYEES, they wouldn’t be able to make that larger wage in the first place. Helping those that have helped them is an excellent way to show their employees that they value and care about them. ~ WIN-WIN in my eyes. ~
Load More Replies...What employers fail to understand is that when you overpay your employees, they will overwork. When you underpay them, they will underwork. Keeping people happy in their work environment is what brings the sales up and the money coming in. But what do I know? I'm an underpaid employee who gives minimum effort at work...
A decent salary and/or hourly wage is more than money in the bank. It say you are of valve. Without you my enterprise would not have successfully made it from paper to fruition. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” ....it's called Teamwork
Load More Replies...Jeff Bezos will one day be worth a trillion dollars. I ask myself what the hell are going to need that much money for? You could have a nice house in every state and still be a billionaire. You could take a grand vacation to Maldives every summer and still be a billionaire. If greed had a face it would be Jeff Bezos. Companies like amazon would fire people and put them on the streets as long as Jeff Bezos stays a billionaire. Money isn’t going to follow you when you die. It’s disgusting to treat people this way. It’s clear you don’t value workers just the numbers they produce. Capitalism sucks.
Jeff Bezos owns 11% of Amazon. The next three largest investors are mutual fund companies - Vanguard, BlackRock, and Advisor Group. (If you have an S&P 500-tracking mutual fund in your 401k or IRA, 3% of that is Amazon.)
Load More Replies...Gee, an employer who says, "My employees are valuable to my own success" is somehow SOCIALISM? I think people need to consult some dictionaries on the definition of socialism....
It is the "equal" wages part that is socialism. Everyone paid as much since they work as much. Not trying to count in the input they haul in. Setting a minimum salary is of course a pretty lame sort of socialism, but still - I guess it is newsworthy in the USA.
Load More Replies...Besides the obvious benefits of the money, this sort of policy shows that the employer realizes the value of his employees and how much they contributed to their success. But even more, it shows the employees that they are RESPECTED.
Just shows that you won't go bust when you pay your employees enough money to live a decent life without having to worry about how they are going to pay for their car repairs AND next month rent but instead actually accumulate some wealth.
I think the people saying 'This is not socialism' or 'This is just capitalism working well' are in denial. This is a glimpse at what socialism does, and what would be prevalent if it were enforced, rather than just waiting for the most competitive people on the planet to suddenly be magnanimous - everyone is happier, including the guy who has less money but doesn't have to worry about a mutiny.
People are saying it's not socialism because it isn't socialism. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful thing he's done, and he should be praised, it's just not socialism. The workers still don't own the means of production, they just get a decent renumeration for the job they do.
Load More Replies...Treating this as some sort of flowering of new wisdom is a bit over the top. I've worked for many tech companies over the last 3 decades, and every single one of them paid excellent salaries, treated employees extremely well, and had solid forward-thinking leadership teams. Why? Because finding talent is hard. Competition for it is fierce. When you have it, you hang onto it. Treat people badly and you'll pay for it - they'll go work somewhere else. No company survives an exodus of good talent.
Why are US Americans so afraid of socialism? Ok, I get why rich people would, but even the poor seam to hate it
Brainwashing that it's "Evil Empire" and means toilet paper shortages and working for nothing. Don't ask me how that works, I was taught in the US and know better, but... I guess poor people love to listen to the rich? I honestly can't figure it out, either.
Load More Replies...All the comments about socialism have confused me. They way I understood it is in a capitalist society everyone has to work and fight to earn and get what they need. It's very competitive and that is great for innovation. In a coomunist society (as intended) it's supposed to be everyone working together and the benefits spread equally to everyone. And socialism is the half-way point between he two extremes. The market is divided down the middle, stuff like police and health is paid into by all the citizens so costs will be free to low cost for everyone and then stuff like furniture and clothing is capitalist and people can fight and make their fortune. The people in this thread seem to have a totally different understanding... so I'm confused what do they actually think socialism is?
They don't nkow what socialism is. That's the problem
Load More Replies...Can we please have Dan Price start a new competitive company to Amazon? I'm imagining all the people coming over from Amazon for a decent pay and LIFE and having all the tools necessary to rebuild a better Amazon. I love the efficiency of Amazon, it is top of the line. But we need to begin adding humanity to everything we do. It's what we are in the first place, how has it been so easy to forget our basic humanity and right to peace and life and a living wage??
I have been promised to get a proper full time contract in March. It should have started in July, now it's almost September and I still got nothing (I work as an independent consultant but it has disadvantages that I don't want to accept anymore). You can bet it has a tremendous negative effect on my work and how much I'll be willing to do for my job (or the upper management). I've been a loyal employee for over 5 years. Why employers don't realize these things is beyond me, congratulations to Dan.
Your employer DOES realize that you've been a loyal employee for 5 years, which is why they aren't following through on their promises to you. Because they think you will keep sucking it up and waiting for them to treat you better.
Load More Replies...People seem to think that the capitalism-socialism division is bipolar when it is, in fact, a continuum. Distributing the profits more evenly is indeed a socialist thing to do, but it doesn't mean his business is completely socialist, it's just more socialist than it was before. I also get a sense that many people feel the need to justify that this is not socialism, because socialism is BAD and what he did is good.
Socialism isn't actually inherantly bad. Communism is different.
Load More Replies...The amount of respect this CEO deserves is beyond measure. One of the more disgusting results of this pandemic has been the rich getting richer while the people who made them wealthy in the good times suffer. Humanity is lost on the wealthy.
Socialism is 'public' (usually government) control of businesses. Regulation is socialist. Government ownership is socialist. Mandatory minimum wages are socialist. Cooperatives are a structure where the ownership of capital is seated with someone other than outside investors or owner-operators and ownership depends on remaining in that group - typically either workers (workers cooperatives) or customers (farmers cooperatives, utility cooperatives, mutual insurance companies, and credit unions being the most common in the US). They are only socialist if they are enforced by government edict, if they are voluntarily organized then they are just another aspect of capitalism. Best Western, CHS, Land O'Lakes, ShopRite, and Healthpartners are all coops, and all very capitalist at heart.
Load More Replies...It's a pity that more employers and companies haven't got the same mindset. Employees would be more focused because they aren't worried about mounting debts and keeping a roof over their head. Big, rich bosses mean nothing when they are killing off their own workforce by greed.
Just an FYI, this guy announced the $75k for everyone after his business partner (and brother) sued him for lying about his salary (he was drawing $1.1M a year, it was supposed to be $350k). For his defense he tried to use the avg salary of his employees (as an avg salary of $75k is comparable to a CEO w $1.1M salary). Translation = you all got played. This guy did this to hide his criminal activity and you propped him up as a messiah.
Your timeline is backwards. The lawsuit was filed 11 days after Dan Price made his announcement - not before, as you claim. The case itself wasn't about Dan's salary at all, but rather that Lucus felt his rights as a minority shareholder had been violated.
Load More Replies...I just commented on Facebook but will paraphrase here and say that there should be many more employers like Dan! He has done an exceptionally wonderful thing for his employees, bless him. Those who think otherwise are just negative thinkers. Dan is a wonderful man and has a kind and generous, thoughtful nature. What is negative about those virtues may I ask. Stop being so negative when someone does something good, even astoundingly great, like Dan has done. You are a WONDERFUL man, DAN!!
Another example of what terrible, cold-hearted people so many conservative "Christians" are.
Wasn't it this guy that got sued because it took out too much money from the company? And then raised every employees wage to twerk the news stories? Anyone who can confirm or deny this?
Why dig up the dirt that has been proven a total lie in court? It's also quite strange that you are asking for confirmation of your gossip while a 15 second search shows that you're just another troll. https://www.inc.com/paul-keegan/dan-price-gravity-lawsuit-win.html. You just not only proved you are a troll, you also proved that you are a stupid troll.
Load More Replies...I'm a Brit, living in Britain. I used to work for a nationalised company. In Britain we've sometimes been a little bit socialist. Socialism is about the state owning the means of production. As far as I can see there has never been anything remotely resembling socialism in the USA, and a single company can't be socialist! It's a nonsense. Likewise the idea that your Democratic Party is 'socialist is simply puzzling to us Brits. We'd put them on the centre right, with middle-ground Conservatives. 'Socialism' seems to be a meaningless term people use to insult people they don't like. That said, at municipal/township level I believe there are cooperative schemes in the USA.
Aren't some companies, or at least their boards and CEOs beholden to the share holders to keep profits as high as possible and pay dividends? It's one of the things I think is wrong with the stock market and also a detriment to many American companies. Sometimes, showing the biggest profit is not the best for your long term success.
This should be happening more. Also, socialist philosophy is not inherantly evil or bad, nor is it the same as communism. Good on the CEO, why can't Jeff Bezos do this.
Assuming that all 120 employees made under $70K, then the average increase per employee was just over $7,000, meaning the average salary was over $60K to begin with. What he did was nice, but it isn't viable for the majority of businesses, particularly the small businesses that employ 48% of the workers in the United States.
Very interesting to say the least, I have said, there is so much money in the world, it's simply in the wrong hands, bottom line, it's all about Greed, Dan Price, you are a gem, if only all companies followed your plan, the world would be a happier place, working for low wages, and difficult to make ends meet, Stress Kills !!!
Excellent!! I've always said the problem with Reagan's "Trickle Down Economics" was they forgot one thing -- GREED.
P.S. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. If employees are properly valued, you get an engaged, committed workforce.
I don’t understand why Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that Socialism = the work of the devil. That’s probably what accounts for so many of the problems in that country. Socialism = fairness, that’s all. Treat people as you want to be treated yourself and everyone is happier. What’s so hard about that?
Just an FYI, this guy made the $75k announcement after being sued by his business partner, he was paying himself $1.1M a year (salary should have been around $350k based on similar businesses).
Those who perform the work necessary, take great care and pride in doing their best because you do less is below the standard the hold for themselves, is something that any employer should never overlook. Employees who are made to feel like they have to work their a*s off and turn over everything to the pimps in corporate suites with secretaries and vacation homes and a cooks and maids who do all the little unpleasant tasks they feel is beneath their bother, and have never run a load of laundry in that fancy new bathroom.
There's an old (capitalist?) saying that "you can't argue with success". My only problem with this is the reported numbers. They don't add up. 120 people with $70K salaries is over $8 Million... 8 times the $1 Million he gave up.
And if you divide the $1 Million he gave up by 120, he gave them each about $8333. i think some details are missing. Oh yeah...as a retired, laisse-faire capitalist business owner, what he did is not socialism.
Load More Replies...Can I work for you? I've worked years fighting my way to make 41k a year.
Anyone else has this not-so-good feeling in his/her gut when the media portrays a CEO as a saint? These are rarely end up well...
Yes. Glassdoor had terrible reviews about this company, some even called the work environment toxic. His brother sued over financial mismanagement. His ex-wife called him abusive and now 2 women are accusing him of sexual assault. Everyone associated with him had bad things to say about him. His only cheerleaders were 1. Media 2. Social media 3. Himself.
Load More Replies...Wait, I remember reading about this several years ago and it failed b/c the employees took advantage of him.
The problem is there are too many people who are more greedy than they are smart. And most of them are not trying to grow a company, they're just playing with the stock for their own short-term gain. Another investor did this - he tried to lower the CEO's pay, but the Board wouldn't do it. So he got on the Board and got the salary lowered and the other employees' salaries raised. Within a year, the CEO was making more than he was before they lowered his salary, stock was up & so was turnover. Richard Hanauer, the only original non-family investor in Amazon (and many other companies now), did a TED talk on this. He said if leaders try to raise employees salaries so much, their Board would fire them, since other companies are not doing the same. He said among most businesspeople, they consider doing anything extra not required by law is not good business sense. https://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocrats_the_pitchforks_are_coming?language=en
F**K ALL YOUR NARROW MINDED BRAINWASHED VIEWS AND STOP LABELING S**T A PEJORATIVE TERM (AND ONLY SO BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN MISNOMER-ED). CALL IT NOTHING BUT ACKNOWLEDGED THE FACTS AND APPLY THE LESSONS.
If you ate to state that you don't agree with our views please do us a favour and NOT SWEAR thank you
Load More Replies...Why? He shares his wealth with his employees and in return gets better business results making him even richer. Everyone in his right mind would prefer this scenario over the common one : Employees having to work for minimum wages that are barely enough to feed their family so they have to apply for food stamps while the rich 3% just add more money to the 90% of wealth they are already owning.
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