CEO Who Gave Employees $70,000 Minimum Wage Faces Massive Backlash and Financial Ruin

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Remember which side said what a great idea this was?
Remember which side said it was a stunt that wouldn't work?

What few outsiders realized, however, was how much turmoil all the hoopla was causing at the company itself. To begin with, Gravity was simply unprepared for the onslaught of emails, Facebook posts and phone calls. The attention was thrilling, but it was also exhausting and distracting. And with so many eyes focused on the firm, some hoping to witness failure, the pressure has been intense.

More troubling, a few customers, dismayed by what they viewed as a political statement, withdrew their business. Others, anticipating a fee increase — despite repeated assurances to the contrary — also left. While dozens of new clients, inspired by Mr. Price’s announcement, were signing up, those accounts will not start paying off for at least another year. To handle the flood, he has already had to hire a dozen additional employees — now at a significantly higher cost — and is struggling to figure out whether more are needed without knowing for certain how long the bonanza will last.

Two of Mr. Price’s most valued employees quit, spurred in part by their view that it was unfair to double the pay of some new hires while the longest-serving staff members got small or no raises. Some friends and associates in Seattle’s close-knit entrepreneurial network were also piqued that Mr. Price’s action made them look stingy in front of their own employees.

Then potentially the worst blow of all: Less than two weeks after the announcement, Mr. Price’s older brother and Gravity co-founder, Lucas Price, citing longstanding differences, filed a lawsuit that potentially threatened the company’s very existence.


Reality: Infinity
Liberals: 0
 

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What?!?

You mean to tell me they couldn't do this without angry customers worrying about higher costs of doing business? Outrageous! Who ever heard of such a thing?

The money just has to come from " somewhere." Wherever they may be isn't important! Just make it happen!
 

Breaking News: MikeB not running for president
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Another swing and miss for the Guesser.

:):):):):):):):):):)


GT_Cumberland_222_scoreboard_crop_north.jpg
 

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I sure wish Akphi was here with a rescue graph.
 

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Is this the ACEBB from Wagerbuffet?
 

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Is that guy a mush loser scared to post picks?

does he stalk other dudes?

if answer is yes......then probably same guy.

? @):mad:
 

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Yes, how dare he try to do something decent. Heretic!!!!!!

Doing something decent and failing at doing the said deed is entirely different things. You know the old saying.... "The road to hell....
 

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Pretty good. can't complain.

Always enjoyed reading your posts. I think you had a blog too I'd checkout from time to time.

I did, ran out of time to do it though. With work and family life and betting its impossible to do everything and it seemed talking to myself on a blog in the middle of cyberspace was the easiest and least productive casualty.
 

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Funny how Lying Ace did his usual Lying Ace thing, only take from an article what goes with his scenario, and misrepresenting the truth. Here's the WHOLE article. Including the parts where the Company is doing fine, made a difference in many people's lives, is increasing business, and the future looks bright. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/b...klash-against-the-raise-that-roared.html?_r=0

“There’s no perfect way to do this and no way to handle complex workplace issues that doesn’t have any downsides or trade-offs,” he said. When other entrepreneurs suggested that stock options or profit-sharing would have been a better approach, he said that’s the way capitalism works: Everyone tries to invent the best mousetrap. “I came up with the best solution I could.”
And the publicity surrounding it has generated tangible benefits. Three months before the announcement, the firm had been adding 200 clients a month. In June, 350 signed up.
That new business won’t start paying off for 12 to 18 months, however, Mr. Price said, and in the meantime, he is contending with the lawsuit brought by his brother. Lucas Price owns about 30 percent of their company, although he has not actively been involved in day-to-day operations for several years. There had been tensions between the two long before the new pay plan, and Lucas is demanding that Dan buy him out for an unspecified amount, plus damages.


For now, at least, Mr. Price has undoubtedly made an immediate difference in the lives of many of his employees. José Garcia, 30, who supervises an equipment team, was able to afford to move into the city and replace the worn tires on his car. Ms. Ortiz, who was briefly homeless as a child, can now visit her family in Burlington, Vt. Cody Boorman, 22, who handles operations out of his eastern Washington home, said he and his wife finally felt financially secure enough to start a family.

There have been other ripples. Mario Zahariev, who runs Pop’s Pizza & Pasta, switched to Gravity after seeing Mr. Price on the news. When he learned his monthly processing fees would drop to $900 from $1,700, Mr. Zahariev decided, “I was not going to keep the difference for myself.” He used the savings to raise the salaries of his eight employees.
Pop’s Pizza aside, Mr. Price’s plan is not easily replicated, said Nick Hanauer, a Seattle venture capitalist and an early promoter of the city’s $15 minimum wage law. Still, he noted, “These individual acts can create a new kind of perception of what’s possible and what’s righteous.” After all, he said, two years ago, no one would ever have guessed higher minimum wage laws would be catching fire in cities around the country. “Who can tell what that last thing is that catalyzes big change?”
In that sense, Mr. Price’s foray into the public debate on wages is not unlike his newfound passion of wake surfing. Cruising atop the curl of a wave created by a motorboat isn’t easy. Lean too far ahead of the swell or drift behind it and you wipe out. For the moment, he is balancing on the crest, enjoying the ride and doing his best to keep from falling off.
 

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Hmmmmm...so now guesser is a proponent of trickle down economics. Oh Cherry.
 

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