From fat paychecks to parental leaves: This CEO knows how to keep staff happy
2 min read 09 Aug 2022, 09:10 PM ISTCEO Dan Price, who heads up Gravity Payments in Seattle, pays his staff a minimum salary of $80,000 per year (which is equivalent to ₹63.5 lakh)
PremiumA US-based CEO is winning the internet with his employee-friendly policies. CEO Dan Price, who heads up Gravity Payments in Seattle, pays his staff a minimum salary of $80,000 per year (which is equivalent to ₹63.5 lakh). Besides, the CEO also claimed that he has allowed remote and flexible working and parental leaves for all his staff.
Price has called out other companies to give similar treatment to their workforce and treat every staff with respect.
Price, who has 771.8k followers on Twitter, wrote, "My company pays an $80k min wage, lets people work wherever they want, has full benefits, paid parental leave, etc. We get over 300 applicants per job".
"No one wants to work" is a hell of a way of saying "companies won't pay workers a fair wage and treat them with respect," Price added.
According to Inc.com, Price was like any other CEO who used to pay an average $30,000 paycheck to his staff when he formed Gravity in 2004 with his brother Lucas Price. It was late 2011 when an entry-level Gravity employee named Jason Haley got pissed off at him.
Haley had told Price, "I know your intentions are bad. You brag about how financially disciplined you are, but that just translates into me not making enough money to lead a decent life".
Price walked away, shocked and hurt. He contemplated the wage issue. Thereafter, for three years, Price handed out 20% annual raises.
To Price's surprise, Gravity's profits multiplied. Price also cut his salary from $1.1 million to fund employees' salaries.
Previously, Price shared his company ethos on Twitter, writing: "6 years ago today I raised my company's min wage to $70k. Fox News called me a socialist whose employees would be on bread lines.
"Since then our revenue tripled, we're a Harvard Business School case study and our employees had a 10x boom in homes bought. Always invest in people."
While some critics slammed Price's way of working, and even called into question how his business would survive. But Price shut them down stating how his company had improved hugely since he changed the wage policies of his firm.
Gravity Payments is always inundated with résumés, including one from a high-powered 52-year-old Yahoo executive named Tammi Kroll.
Kroll was so inspired by Price that she quit her job and went to work for Gravity at what she insisted would be an 80-85% pay cut, as per Inc.com.
Garret Nelson, 31, a salesman in Boise, Idaho, got a $5,000 raise, to $55,000 after joining Gravity. Gravity has a 91% retention rate over the past three years -- far above the industry average of about 68%, as per the report.
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