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CEO takes big pay cut to give employees a raise
The head of a Seattle-based credit card payment processing firm will be bringing home considerably less bacon after raising the minimum wage at his company to $70,000 a year.
Seattle--It’s said that everybody has their price and for Seattle CEO Dan Price, it appears his number is $930,000.
That exactly how much of his $1 million annual salary the executive will be sacrificing in order to make a big difference in his employees’ lives.
Price announced to employees Monday that he would be increasing the minimum wage at Gravity Payments, which does credit card payment processing for independent businesses, to $70,000 a year over the next three years while at the same time lowering his annual salary from just about $1 million to the minimum.
Many of the firm’s 120 employees currently make about $40,000 to $50,000 a year.
WATCH: Gravity Payments’ CEO Dan Price on the Today show
He told Hoda Kotb on the Today show Wednesday morning that in addition to rewarding his employees--who greeted the news of their amazing raise with a standing ovation--he opted to increase the minimum wage at Gravity Payments in order to draw attention to the continuing struggles of the American middle class.
He said, “Seeing growing inequality and seeing how it’s 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 said he chose $70,000 after reading this article on the connection between salaries and emotional well-being.
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