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CEO Who Raised Minimum Wage To £50k Receives Tesla From Employees

CEO Who Raised Minimum Wage To £50k Receives Tesla From Employees

Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, raised the minimum salary for employees to £50k after taking a cut from his own pay

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

A CEO who slashed his own salary to accommodate pay rises for his staff was given a Tesla by employees as a token of their appreciation.

Dan Price is the founder and CEO of Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments, which had starting wages of around $35,000 (£25,000).

However, as revenue soared and the company began to thrive, Price decided to make sure all of his workers had enough to look after themselves - saying many were having babies and buying homes.

Instagram/Dan Price

Speaking to Insider, he explained how he took a cut from his own $1 million (£720,000) wage to raise the firm's minimum salary to $70,000 for his 120 employees.

He said: "The media in general said we would fail. Or even in some cases, rooted for us to fail."

However, Price believes he's managed to prove them wrong, saying things have only grown even better in the six-or-so years since the change.

Instagram/Dan Price

He continued: "It's been over six years and we've had really fantastic results. We've had a 10 times increase in the number of first-time homeowners every year and 70% of our employees were able to pay down debt."

Price said around a third of his staff have reported they were debt-free, adding: "Our employees had a 10 times boom in terms of the number of babies they were having.

"We went from having between 0-2 babies born per year among the entire team, to over 65 born or announced over the last six years."

And it seems Price's staff appreciate their boost in wages, having bought their CEO a Tesla car as a token of their gratitude.

"That was a really beautiful gesture and any day I drive to work or a client meeting, I can just feel the amazing relationship we're able to have," he said.

According to Gravity Payments' website, Price was raised in rural Idaho, and started Gravity Payments from his university dorm room when he was just 19 years old.

"Although music was his passion growing up, Dan discovered his lifelong mission when he found many small business owners in his community were being taken advantage of by their credit card processors," it says.

"He knew that wasn't right, so he rolled up his sleeves and began disrupting the typical way business is done."

Other perks for staff include 'open paid time off', medical, dental and vision insurance, 'Flannel Fridays', company-sponsored outings, volunteer opportunities and catered breakfasts and lunches.

Featured Image Credit: Instagram/Dan Price

Topics: tesla, World News, News, US News