Three months ago, Mr. Price, 31, announced he
was setting a new minimum salary of $70,000 at
his Seattle credit card processing firm, Gravity
Payments, and slashing his own million-dollar pay
package to do it. He wasn't thinking about the
current political clamor over low wages or the
growing gap between rich and poor, he said. He
was just thinking of the 120 people who worked
for him and, let's be honest, a bit of free publicity.
The idea struck him when a friend shared her
worries about paying both her rent and student
loans on a $40,000 salary. He realized a lot of his
own employees earned that or less.
Yet almost overnight, a decision by one small-
business man in the northwestern corner of the
country became a swashbuckling blow against
income inequality.
Whether you support his actions or not, ask
yourself this question: what does it say about our
society that a young man slashing his own salary
to increase that of his employees draws more ire
than a CEO raising his own salary to 70 times that
of an average employee?
Most mystifying of all, though, are the employees
leaving because their coworkers got a pay raise to
$70000, while they themselves already earned
$70000. I don't understand this mindset. You still
have your salary. You still get your $70000,
except now your fellow men and women on the
work floor also get it. Is your self-worth really
derived from earning more than the people
around you? Is your sense of self really dictated
by how much more you earn than Jim from
accounting or Alice from engineering?
I personally believe this is a step in the right direction.
Source:mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/business/a-company-copes-with-backlash-against-the-raise-that-roared.html?referrer=

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