Many recognize Dan Price as the CEO that slashed his salary back in 2015 so that he could raise the minimum wage at his company to $70,000 per year.
The Seattle-based businessman is now making headlines once again since he opened a new office in Idaho and announced that all of its employees would be given the same salary.
Price is the founder and CEO of Gravity Payments: a credit card processing company that he launched out of his college dorm room when he was just 19 years old. As CNN reports, their new office in Boise used to belong to an independent company named ChargeItPro before it was acquired by Gravity in 2016.
After Price and his employees recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the office, he announced that he'd be raising their salaries to the $70,000 minimum before 2024.
Price first got the idea for the pay raise back in 2015 after reading a research paper on happiness that demonstrated showed how extra money makes a big difference in the lives of people earning less than $70,000 per year.
This morning we cut the ribbon on the new @GravityPymts Boise office AND announced that all of our employees here will start earning our $70k min salary.
— Dan Price (@DanPriceSeattle) September 23, 2019
I’m so grateful to work with this amazing team and to be able to compensate them for the value they bring to our community. pic.twitter.com/stwwJgYCqQ
He managed to make it through the 2008 recession without laying off any staffers or raising prices, despite losing 20 percent of his business. Since most of these young workers stuck with him through the hard times, he saw the wage increases as a way of returning that loyalty—even if it meant slashing his salary from $1 million to the same $70K per year.
After his 70 workers benefited from the pay raise, Gravity Payments became flooded with business. After a week, Price says the company recorded the best week for acquiring new clients in the eleven years since he founded it.
Six months later, he found that his employees were more productive than ever; old customers were sticking with him, and his customer retention rate had increased from 91 to 95 percent, which was 37 points better than the national average.
He now hopes the new Idaho office will help to reap the same benefits for everyone involved—particularly his employees.
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