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Dan Price rose to national prominence in 2015 when he announced his credit card payment processing company, Gravity Payments, would begin to pay all of its employees an annual $70k "living wage."
To pay for the wage increase, Price slashed his own payment as CEO from roughly a million down to the standard $70k.
In the years since, Price has been attacked by many conservative organizations, especially Fox News, for supposedly "socialist" business practices. Some of Price's clients canceled their partnerships with Gravity Payments, fearing their prices would rise.
But six years later, the company has grown and its client base has expanded. The Harvard Business School and Inc. Magazine consider Price's experiment a success.
On Twitter, Price shared a thread reminiscing on the positive effects of his decision and lashing out at the critics who tried to say paying his employees a living wage was business suicide.
He also included a video.
6 years ago today I raised my company's min wage to $70k. Fox News called me a socialist whose employees would be o… https://t.co/5Cg6tMEt8b— Dan Price (@Dan Price)1618333827.0
We started our $70k min wage with about 130 employees in Seattle. It worked so well we expanded it to a new Boise… https://t.co/02nbTgB3PR— Dan Price (@Dan Price)1618337501.0
Price decided to raise his employees' wages after discovering one worker had to keep a second job at McDonald's to get by.
At the start of the pandemic, we lost 55% of our revenue overnight. Our employees were so invested they volunteered… https://t.co/ob6GtuBofQ— Dan Price (@Dan Price)1618341454.0
What helped inspire our $70k min wage? An employee was secretly working a 2nd job at McDonald's. It was clear I wa… https://t.co/6jWqexmZxY— Dan Price (@Dan Price)1618345419.0
@MnemonicSyntax I made a lot of personal changes. But I still had savings and made a fair salary. I don't miss anyt… https://t.co/Trc3emhf8G— Dan Price (@Dan Price)1618337811.0
In the world of modern business, there's an industry standard CEOs should be paid hundreds to thousands of times more than anyone working under them.
Price challenged this norm and has become more successful because of it.
@RachelNStephens I did this as a private business owner. It affected no one but myself (I cut my salary from $1.1M… https://t.co/Z4ZZKEwGwe— Dan Price (@Dan Price)1618335175.0
Waiting for the day when more founders will start doing this https://t.co/fo3pvvYCve— Timi Idowu (@Timi Idowu)1618414778.0
This dude is my hero! https://t.co/xwVxIu7AqB— Habitual Line Stepper - CM 🌊🌊 (@Habitual Line Stepper - CM 🌊🌊)1618410498.0
Price's accomplishment was widely praised on social media.
This is how it should be. https://t.co/34WntObb0S— Henry Prince (@Henry Prince)1618372801.0
Nothing more important than taking care of your employees!! https://t.co/wmqEbZipXR— Sam Highsmith (@Sam Highsmith)1618371590.0
Thank you for being a solid proof that this works. This shakes the greedy CEOs and shareholders who made fun of you… https://t.co/tucE5jI3pU— Human (@Human)1618368890.0
Good things happen when companies care about their employees.
Rush Limbaugh said it would fail. That didn't happen. https://t.co/3puUqr7N7R— Ryan Cummings (@Ryan Cummings)1618367001.0
Gravity Payments is still running strong and Price says he doesn't miss the "millionaire lifestyle" one bit.