The CEO of a Seattle-based company made waves today when he admitted he slashed his own salary to raise the minimum wage of his employees to $70,000. Appearing on Today Wednesday, Dan Price explained the reasoning behind his decision to co-anchor Hoda Kotb.
"It's not about making money,'' Gravity Payments CEO Price explained. "It's about making a difference."
He made the announcement Monday and received a standing ovation from his 120 employees, the majority of whom were making less than $40,000/year. He landed on that specific figure after reading an article that said how more money makes a huge difference in people's lives. In addition to raising the salaries of his employees, Price admitted that he would also be lowering his salary to $70,000 from $1 million.
"For me, I really do view everything I do as a responsibility,'' he said on the morning show. "Seeing growing inequality and seeing how its harder to just make ends meet and kind of live the normal American dream, things are getting more and more expensive, especially in a city like Seattle, and the wages aren't keeping up."
Price began Gravity Payments in his college dorm room, but now his company processes transactions of more than $6 billion for approximately 12,000 businesses, according to NBC. Because it's not a publicly traded company, there won't be any backlash from shareholders as a result of the dramatic announcement.
He told Today that his employees were "a little nervous" for him prior to spilling the beans on the big news. "Taking that big of a pay cut, first of all. Secondly, creating these expectations. I heard from a lot of people, can you do this? Can you pull this off? Are you going to go out of business from this? It is a risk, I think in the short term, but I have 100 percent confidence in the medium and long term."
He added, "It's gonna be great for the company, and even more importantly, great for all of the independent businesses we serve."
Sounds like he's a man with a plan!
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