Here’s a story that should actually make you feel pretty good. A Seattle CEO made the minimum wage at his company $70,000/year, noting that studies have found happiness increases when people have a little extra money in their wallets. You know why this story is so good? Because it’s a private company - not the federal government. It’s an important lesson to remember on Tax Day.
Dan Price, 30, announced this week that any employee at his company, Gravity Payments, making less than $70,000 annually will receive a $5,000-per-year raise or be paid a minimum of $50,000, whichever is greater. The aim: By December 2017, everyone will earn $70,000 or more.
To facilitate this change, Price said his salary will decrease to $70,000 from about $1 million until or unless the company's profits are greater than last year's approximately $2.2 million.
"I salute him. It's a private company. You can do whatever you want," Glenn said. "I think that's great now that he's made his millions of dollars and he has his nice house and nice life. I know people who have millions of dollars and then they don't take a salary at all. And they've given all of their money to charity. And I applaud that, good for them."