In his egalitarian move to pay employees a $70,000 minimum wage, Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price has now been forced to mortgage his house and sell his investments as a reserve for the payments processing company.
In a report by CNN, Price explains that his decision to sell his investments and mortgage his house was to provide Gravity Payments more margin for error in case the firm falls through hard times.
In the past few months, Price and his firm have been the center of discussions with people both inside and outside the business world. And although Gravity Payments has attracted a lot of talent because of the recent media buzz, it has also lost some of its veteran employees.
Perhaps the most difficult thing Price faces right now would be the possibility of a legal battle with his brother, Lucas Price, who filed suit against him on the charges of overcompensation.
Seattle Times shares the details of the Price brothers' long-standing disagreement on many things, not limited to the salary raise of Gravity Payment employees.
According to reports, Lucas price claims that he was deprived of his share of minority-shareholder benefits while his brother paid himself close to $1 million before he cut his pay to $70,000.
Despite harsh criticisms from financial experts and economists, Dan Price admits that he has no regrets whatsoever and continues to hope for the best for the firm, even stating that "the trends are positive."
Not everyone is against Price's egalitarian act, though. ThinkProgress.org explains how some economists believe that the salary raise will be effective in creating success for Gravity Payments, as an increase in pay has been proven to increase productivity and performance among employees. Not to mention that it also attracts hard-to-come-by talent and improve the overall efficiency of the company.
Many believe that when Dan Price decided to raise everyone's salary and cut back his own, his heart was in the right place, but people still have mixed opinions about whether or not it was the right move in his effort to address the issue of income inequality.
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