• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Boss took a pay-cut to pay all his employees a 70K minimum salary, and guess what? It worked!

Ziltoidia 9

Ziltoidia 9

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,149
Give the people more money and.............. the economy works? But... how would we control them then?
 
Nepenthe

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
21,044
Look what happens when you're not a greedy asshole.

Good on that boss.
 
Van Bur3n

Van Bur3n

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
26,089
Amazing what can happen when a business allows everyone to have money and not funneled into one or two individuals at the top so they can afford their super yacht mansion.
 
Mauricio_Magus

Mauricio_Magus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,102
People that don't have to live stressed about their finances do better performance wise and are more loyal.

It's fucking obvious.
 
Sho_Nuff82

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Nov 14, 2017
18,513
I remember when this happened, people were honest to god calling his experiment "socialism."

Paying (or otherwise compensating) employees above market value to attract/retain talent, improve productivity, and perhaps cynically serve as a marketing gimmick is capitalism, pure and simple. It just breaks people's brains that capitalism doesn't have to be malicious to the majority in 100% of cases.
 
Z-Beat

Z-Beat

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,920
I don't think people refuse to take pay cuts because they believe it won't work

I think they refuse to take pay cuts because they don't want to make less money in the short term and say they believe it won't work because the actual reason would be a shitty thing to admit. I could be wrong but it's better to assume someone does something shitty because they're shitty rather than because they're stupid. At the very worst you'll be overprepared
 
shadowkat

shadowkat

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,903
You mean people getting a living wage and not having to worry about every dollar are happier, healthier and more productive? Who would have thought?
 
makonero

makonero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,709
Yeah I remember this. So glad it's all working out. Greed is not good and often short term thinking leads to long term pain.
Let's hope we can get more CEOs thinking this way.
 
Muppet of a Man

Muppet of a Man

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,740
Sho_Nuff82 said:
I remember when this happened, people were honest to god calling his experiment "socialism."

Paying (or otherwise compensating) employees above market value to attract/retain talent, improve productivity, and perhaps cynically serve as a marketing gimmick is capitalism, pure and simple. It just breaks people's brains that capitalism doesn't have to be malicious to the majority in 100% of cases.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's almost like we are going through the Gilded Age cycle all over again. Guys like Henry Ford had the genius idea that if you pay your workers a living wage, they'll actually also be able to afford the stuff they are making!
 
Gestalt

Gestalt

The Fallen
Nov 10, 2017
499
Let your employees prosper and build happy lives, and the same will happen for your business as well. This is the difference between people slaving away endlessly or being able to build families, homes, and futures. If you're a boss, I'm sure a move like this pays off mentally too. Guy probably feels great knowing that he's enabling his employees to live the lives they want to.
 
BlackGoku03

BlackGoku03

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,283
Damn that's weird. I was JUST talking about this yesterday and they guy I was speaking to said they wouldn't last long.

Gonna send him this.
 
Sho_Nuff82

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Nov 14, 2017
18,513
Readin
Muppet of a Man said:
It's almost like we are going through the Gilded Age cycle all over again. Guys like Henry Ford had the genius idea that if you pay your workers a living wage, they'll actually also be able to afford the stuff they are making!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean it's all there in the article, on top of the increase in babies:

More than 10% of the company have been able to buy their own home, in one of the US's most expensive cities for renters. Before the figure was less than 1%.

"There was a little bit of concern amongst pontificators out there that people would squander any gains that they would have. And we've really seen the opposite," Price says.

The amount of money that employees are voluntarily putting into their own pension funds has more than doubled and 70% of employees say they've paid off debt.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

America has forgotten how to reinvest in its workforce. If people were able to comfortably pay their bills on their basic salary you would see more marriage and home ownership, just generally more stability.

Presidential Medal of Freedom winner with a hilariously bad take:

But Price did get a lot of flak. Along with hundreds of letters of support, and magazine covers labelling him "America's best boss", many of Gravity's own customers wrote handwritten letters objecting to what they saw as a political statement.

At the time, Seattle was debating an increase to the minimum wage to $15, making it the highest in the US at the time. Small business owners were fighting it, claiming they would go out of business.

The right-wing radio pundit, Rush Limbaugh, whom Price had listened to every day in his childhood, called him a communist.

"I hope this company is a case study in MBA programmes on how socialism does not work, because it's going to fail," he said.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

And look at these crab-in-a-barrel-ass mofos:

Two senior Gravity employees also resigned in protest. They weren't happy that the salaries of junior staff had jumped overnight, and argued that it would make them lazy, and the company uncompetitive.

This hasn't happened.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If YoU pAy ThE jUnIoR eMpLoYeEs WeLl ThEy WoNt CoMe To WoRk BeGgInG fOr YoUr ScRaPs AnD wHaT wIlL wE dO tHeN?
 
jon bones

jon bones

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,111
NYC
I love that they checked back on this guy.

I teared up at the metric he was proud of - so many new babies
 
Heshinsi

Heshinsi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,110
But Price did get a lot of flak. Along with hundreds of letters of support, and magazine covers labelling him "America's best boss", many of Gravity's own customers wrote handwritten letters objecting to what they saw as a political statement.

At the time, Seattle was debating an increase to the minimum wage to $15, making it the highest in the US at the time. Small business owners were fighting it, claiming they would go out of business.

The right-wing radio pundit, Rush Limbaugh, whom Price had listened to every day in his childhood, called him a communist.

"I hope this company is a case study in MBA programmes on how socialism does not work, because it's going to fail," he said.

Two senior Gravity employees also resigned in protest. They weren't happy that the salaries of junior staff had jumped overnight, and argued that it would make them lazy, and the company uncompetitive.

This hasn't happened.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

People are fucking stupid. From the customers complaining, to that idiot Limbaugh, and finally the senior staff who quit because people below them get a pay raise.
 
Dragonyeuw

Dragonyeuw

Member
Nov 4, 2017
4,385
Invest in your employees, your employees are then more invested in your business, productivity increases, business increases, everybody wins?

giphy.gif
 
Heshinsi

Heshinsi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,110
The Last Wizard said:
Everyone wins? But then no one loses and the wealthy and powerful love for others to lose:(
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

"It's not enough that I should succeed, others should fail." - Too many people to count lol

The grandpa in All the Money in the World has a mindset like that, and it made me leave the theatre really pissed off. The scene with the divorce proceedings for example highlighted how he assumed she was getting one over him, even when she refused all his money and only wanted custody of her kids.
 
The Archon

The Archon

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
1,883
Sho_Nuff82 said:
I remember when this happened, people were honest to god calling his experiment "socialism."

Paying (or otherwise compensating) employees above market value to attract/retain talent, improve productivity, and perhaps cynically serve as a marketing gimmick is capitalism, pure and simple. It just breaks people's brains that capitalism doesn't have to be malicious to the majority in 100% of cases.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Whoever called this socialism is obviously ignorant. Because this is a great example of what capitalism could be.
 

Deleted member 11413

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
22,961
Sho_Nuff82 said:
Readin


I mean it's all there in the article, on top of the increase in babies:



America has forgotten how to reinvest in its workforce. If people were able to comfortably pay their bills on their basic salary you would see more marriage and home ownership, just generally more stability.

Presidential Medal of Freedom winner with a hilariously bad take:



And look at these crab-in-a-barrel-ass mofos:



If YoU pAy ThE jUnIoR eMpLoYeEs WeLl ThEy WoNt CoMe To WoRk BeGgInG fOr YoUr ScRaPs AnD wHaT wIlL wE dO tHeN?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Limbaugh is such a fucking idiot, good lord.
 
Muppet of a Man

Muppet of a Man

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,740
The Archon said:
Whoever called this socialism is obviously ignorant. Because this is a great example of what capitalism could be.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ah, but their initial messaging to conflate more fair allocation of capital to those who actually deserve it and socialism is exactly what they intended. Because the investment/executive class are actually much more afraid of the former due to it being feasible.

Remember, they've spent the last 40 years chipping away at the American welfare state and the actual fair, competitive aspects of capitalism. Those things returning is what they are deathly afraid of. That's why a guy like Bernie Sanders, who is actually a social democrat in practice and not a socialist at all, is the bane of their existence.
 
ImaginaShawn

ImaginaShawn

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,532
All this tells me is that capitalism is the best way to solve overpopulation.


$4 dollar minimum wage now!
 

ThatRebel

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
456
San Antonio, TX
Awesome story. I kind of want to send this to my boss but I work for a small company and doubt it would do anything. I'm also pretty sure poor financial responsibility is more of a money leak than overpaid management. They are paying two different companies to host an incredibly basic website that never gets updated.
 

olubode

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,924
The best part of that story? Some of the employees bought the boss a Tesla to Replace his own 12 year old car.
 
SageShinigami

SageShinigami

Member
Oct 27, 2017
30,522
Sho_Nuff82 said:
I remember when this happened, people were honest to god calling his experiment "socialism."

Paying (or otherwise compensating) employees above market value to attract/retain talent, improve productivity, and perhaps cynically serve as a marketing gimmick is capitalism, pure and simple. It just breaks people's brains that capitalism doesn't have to be malicious to the majority in 100% of cases.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The shorthand for communism was always "everyone making the same amount of money regardless of what job they do". So yeah, that tracks.

I thought I read an article on how this failed, but I'm glad to see that's not true.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.