Staff members gasped four years ago when Dan Price gathered the 120 employees at Gravity Payments, the company he had founded with his brother, and told them he was raising everyone\u2019s salary to a minimum of $70,000, partly by slashing his own $1.1 million pay to the same level.<\/p>\n
The news went viral and provoked a national debate about whether efficient capitalism could have a heart. Some Americans lauded Price for treating employees with dignity. However, on Fox Business he was labeled the \u201clunatic of all lunatics,\u201d and Rush Limbaugh declared, \u201cI hope this company is a case study in M.B.A. programs on how socialism does not work, because it\u2019s going to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
So I came to Seattle to see what had unfolded: Did Gravity succeed or crash?<\/p>\n
There were bumps, no doubt about it. A couple of important employees quit, apparently feeling less valued when new hires were close to them in pay. The publicity forced Gravity, which processes credit card payments for small businesses, to hire additional people to handle a deluge of inquiries. Worst of all, Price\u2019s brother, who owned a stake in the company, sued and alleged that Price hadn\u2019t consulted him on decisions.<\/p>\n
For a while, it wasn\u2019t clear that the gamble was going to pay off.<\/p>\n
But eventually it did: Business has surged, and profits are higher than ever. Gravity last year processed $10.2 billion in payments, more than double the $3.8 billion in 2014, before the announcement. It has grown to 200 employees, all nonunion.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n A small Seattle company shows that capitalism can have a heart. https:\/\/t.co\/pmGpeuY6Iv<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Daan Diederiks (@daandiederiks) March 31, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n