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When Dan Price founder of Seattle based credit card payment company, Gravity Payments announced last April he will take a 93% pay cut from US one million a year to $70,000 in order for his 120 employees to get a pay raise, he made news headlines and successfully motivated his workforce.
But not all are happy with his decision, his brother and co-founder, Lucas Price of the company accused Dan accused Dan of paying himself "excessive compensation" and violating his rights as a minority shareholder. He filed a lawsuit with a Seattle court and asked for a forced sale or dissolution of the company.
After a three weeks long trial the court ruled the case in Dan Prices's flavour. He had no idea another big win was coming his way when his staff surprised him with his dream car a blue Tesla Model S. Fittingly, the starting price for a Tesla Model S is $70,000.
Last Thursday, Price posted news of his new Tesla on Facebook. “Shocked. Still in disbelief. Never imagined this was possible. Gravity employees saved up and pitched in over the past six months and bought me my dream car.” he wrote.
The post showed a photo of a poster signed by employees reading “Dan: Thank you for always putting the team before yourself.”
Shocked. Still in disbelief. Never imagined this was possible. Gravity employees saved up and pitched in over the past...Posted by Dan Price on 2016年7月14日
Gravity spokesman Ryan Pirkle told the Seattle Times said that the gift was thought up and organized by Alyssa O’Neal, an employee who he said was one of the “most impacted” by the raise. He added that nearly every one of Gravity’s 135 employees contributed to the gift in some way.
It fact that Price's willingness to share the wealth has done wonders of the company. After he raise the minimum salary of the company to $70,000 a year the company’s customer retention rate rose from 91 to 95 % and only two employees quit.
Revenue has grown at double the rate and profits have also doubled.
As for attracting talent, two weeks after he made the initial announcement, the company was flooded with 4,500 resumes and new customer inquiries jumped from 30 a month to 2,000 a month.
Interestingly, Price said his decision to change his salary policy because a staff stormed in and told him “You’re ripping me off,” back in 2011.
ALSO READ: The world’s most generous bosses
Image: 123RF
