In April, the Seattle-based credit card payment firm announced it would be raising its employees’ pay to a minimum of US$70,000 (S$96,028) across the board, earning praise from its 120 workers.
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The New York Times reports that the CEO has been forced to rent out his house. He admitted he was doing it to address the wealth gap.
It was not just some workers who quit but also customers who felt Price made a political statement that could lead to higher charges on them to shoulder the bigger paycheck of employees of Gravity.
“He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a a bump”, said Maisey McMaster, 26, Gravity’s financial manager, the Times reported.
The Washington Times quotes Price as saying “I’m renting out my house right now to try to make ends meet myself”.
Ms. McMaster, who has now quit the company, said that when she approached Mr. Price with her concerns about the wage changes, he treated her as if she was being selfish. “That really hurt me. I haven’t made this little amount of money since I was in my early 20s”.
“Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me”, he told The Times.
Another dissatisfied employee, web developer Grant Moran, said it tied high performers with less-motivated team members.
The video – which accompanies the Times’ piece and is titled Love Letters to the Gravity Boss – shows Price reading from the hundreds of letters he received after making the wage announcement. And while he got many job applicants and even a few new accounts, some accounts withdrew their business, thinking the issue was more PR stunt than useful, and others feared price increases.
And to make things worse, his brother Lucas Price, who owns 30 per cent of the company, is taking him to court, accusing Dan of taking millions of dollars out of the company while denying Lucas the benefits of his minority ownership. The resulting legal fees are draining the profits of the company, along with the increased salary costs.
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Brian Canlis, co-owner of a family restaurant, already anxious about how to deal with Seattle’s new minimum wage, told Price the pay raise at Gravity “makes it harder for the rest of us”.
