CEO pays his staff an $80K minimum wage. He urged other firms to pay a fair wage too.

Meet Dan Price. He is the CEO of Gravity Payments, where his employees earn a minimum wage of at least $80,000 a year. In addition, he offers his employees other benefits such as standard, remote and flexible working as well as paid parental leave. Now, he is urging other companies to pay their employees a fair wage too. Calling these companies out, he added that they should treat their employees with respect. Price previously made headlines for offering a $70,000 minimum wage, taking a pay cut himself as a CEO to ensure everyone in his company made a livable wage, Lad Bible reports.

"My company pays an $80,000 minimum wage, lets people work wherever they want, has full benefits, paid parental leave, etc.," Price wrote in a social media post. "We get over 300 applicants per job. 'No one wants to work' is a hell of a way of saying, 'Companies will not pay workers a fair wage and treat them with respect.'" Since he first posted his message, the CEO has been inundated with messages from potential employees. One person's comment reads, "I barely get paid a third of that at my job. I need a new place of work. If you ever open up shop here in BC, Canada, I will be the first to apply."

"Last year you had a $70,000 minimum!" another added. "It is insane you are doing this and that the majority of CEOs are crying poor and blaming everything but themselves. Do not stop being you, Dan!" Price had previously shared his company ethos on Twitter, where he explained, "Six years ago today I raised my company's minimum wage to $70,000. Fox News called me a socialist whose employees would be on bread lines. Since then our revenue tripled, we are a Harvard Business School case study, and our employees had a ten-time boom in homes bought. Always invest in people."

His critics claimed his business model was unsustainable. However, Price has proved them wrong. Although the pandemic did hit his business hard, he was able to bounce right back. He stated, "Since our $70,000 minimum wage was announced six years ago today, our revenue tripled, headcount grew 70 percent, customer base doubled, [the number of] babies had by staff grew ten times, 70 percent of employees paid down debt, [the number of] homes bought by employees grew ten times, 401(k) contributions grew 155 percent, and turnover dropped in half." In addition to this, according to the CEO, 76% of employees are engaged at work, [which is] twice the national average, and customer attrition fell to 25% below the national average. The company even expanded to a new Boise location, where Price enacted a $70,000 minimum wage as well. Evidently, his business model works!