Have you heard about Dan Price yet? He’s the CEO of Seattle’s Gravity Payments, a company that streamlines credit card payments for other companies. He’s a multi-millionaire. And he just slashed his own salary to $70,000 in order to make $70,000 the “minimum wage” of ALL 120 of his employees.
I love this guy! Not only does he look like the baby that Jesus and Brad Pitt would have if they could have a baby (which I’m pretty sure Jesus could make happen if He wanted to), Dan Price has has figured out a way to make capitalism palatable to people like Bernie Sanders and, well, me: pay every member of your company enough to let them live comfortably.
Let me break that down.
Enough to live COMFORTABLY. Dan Price studied enough economists’s work to determine $70,000 as the minimum annual salary required to live a working life, without being consumed by issues of rent-payments or oh-no-the-car-just-broke-down crises.
Pay EVERY member of your company. Office Manager? Yes. Janitor? Yes. Parking lot attendant? Yes. Security Gua–look, what is it about “every member” that you don’t get?
INC. Magazine put him on its November cover: “Is This The Best Boss in America?” with this tag line:
Dan Price decided to pay all 120 employees at least $70,000. Grown men cried. Profits soared. Then things got really crazy.
I first saw Dan Price interviewed by The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah, but Comedy Central’s not ready to part with that clip for free. So here’s Mr. Price making his announcement to his staff on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, back in April
And here he is, explaining further at the Aspen Ideas Festival:
Could this CEO-with-a-heart idea catch on? Has it already? I know what Donald Trump would say, but what do you think? Does anyone know of any other companies already going this route? I want to hear more.
I heard about this back when he announced the change but nothing since. Wondering what he said on the Daily Show. Thanks.
He didn’t say anything new, just amplified his original message. And I guess he did use the word “love” in saying it was impossible to quantify, but perhaps he said that originally and I missed it back a few months ago. He also said (essentially) that he’s not a socialist, pointing out that socialism means a government-run system. He’s more about people-run. At least that’s what I got out of it.