CEO who raised workers’ minimum pay to $70K hits predictable problems

[Wilikon]

CEOtoCEO participant awarded National SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year

I recognized that confident smile immediately.  It was CEOtoCEO Breakfast participant Dan Price, Co-founder of Gravity Payments.  Dan was recently recognized as the National SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year.  Dan’s company works as an intermediary between merchants and credit card companies, has 50 employees and more than 5,000 customers.

I asked Dan to share his experience with the rest of us.  Congratulations and thanks for your thoughts Dan
“It was awesome,” said Price of his meeting with Obama. “It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

I am just very proud to be a part of the Gravity team. Even though it is technically an individual award, it was clearly presented because of the accomplishments we have made supporting small businesses as a team. I was afforded 45 minutes in the Rose Garden with President Obama, two Governors, and members of congress. I found everyone engaging, open to my ideas, and appreciative of our work. The President emphasized that he sees small business leading out of the recession and recognized that 2 out of 3 new jobs created come from entrepreneurs like me.

In the meantime, not a lot changes…we still need to focus on providing merchant processing at half the cost of competitors, keep our focus on transparency and honesty, and continue to provide world class customer service. It was a great award, but full steam ahead…we haven’t quite arrived yet!

Congratulations Dan.  Look forward to seeing you at the CEOtoCEO.

Posted on June 22, 2010


http://www.ceotoceo.com/ceotoceo-participant-awarded-national-sba-young-entrepreneur-of-the-year/

[Gronthaing]

What an idiot.... income inequality will be there as long as differences in experience and skills exist. Someone who is working in the McDonald's with less than two years of experience can't expect to get the same salary, which is given to someone else who is having 30-years of experience and working as an electrician.

The problem with income inequality isn't because what someone working at macdonald's makes less than someone working as an electrician.

Watch anybody who supports this find some way to blame those people who left, oh wait, people are already trying to, some people really don't understand how the real world fucking works until it hits them in the face, much like this CEO.

I don't blame those who left. But I would have gone further than that ceo. I would have turned the company into a cooperative. Doesn't mean everyone would be paid the same of course. But the people working there would have a much greater incentive to work than what they made versus their colleges then. That's the best way to address inequality.

[Furio]

why did the high skilled workers leave? they didnt got less salary right?
i mean the people that left will get the same salary somewhere else right?

greed and jealousy.

we need the singularity asap.
(of course only if it isnt going to kill us)

It only proove that we the people are the only thing holding back a fair and honest structure, because WE arent fair and honest, the system will never be untill we evolve ourselves and therefore the system...

The fact that you can do more than the other guy improves your status and character, but why does the other guy needs to struggle to make ends meet, simply because he has less mental capacity, that is NOT fair or honest, it's oppressive, selfish and dark ages mentality...

[Possum577]

Interesting to watch this evolve,figured there would be issues but did not expect so many from within. Sure did not take long to start eating itself.

I was shocked to see how fast that experiment collapsed. Indeed.

Or enter the Government to save everyone from the trouble they're having from all this equal pay without equal merit. Just a theory. BUT, it's interesting to see how these business decisions play out. Like the raise in minimum wage in Seattle.

Only time will tell if these moves bring more prosperity or just raise the bar at which we declare poverty.

There's no substitute for having sound skills that someone is willing to pay for...and sometimes always skills need to change match what the market needs.

[Wilikon]

Interesting to watch this evolve,figured there would be issues but did not expect so many from within. Sure did not take long to start eating itself.

I was shocked to see how fast that experiment collapsed. Indeed.

Or enter the Government to save everyone from the trouble they're having from all this equal pay without equal merit. Just a theory. BUT, it's interesting to see how these business decisions play out. Like the raise in minimum wage in Seattle.

Only time will tell if these moves bring more prosperity or just raise the bar at which we declare poverty.

There's no substitute for having sound skills that someone is willing to pay for...and sometimes always skills need to change match what the market needs.

We have seen multiple examples of socialism collapsing in the past. Even today. Venezuela (another thread of mine)

[Furio]

Interesting to watch this evolve,figured there would be issues but did not expect so many from within. Sure did not take long to start eating itself.

I was shocked to see how fast that experiment collapsed. Indeed.

Or enter the Government to save everyone from the trouble they're having from all this equal pay without equal merit. Just a theory. BUT, it's interesting to see how these business decisions play out. Like the raise in minimum wage in Seattle.

Only time will tell if these moves bring more prosperity or just raise the bar at which we declare poverty.

There's no substitute for having sound skills that someone is willing to pay for...and sometimes always skills need to change match what the market needs.

We have seen multiple examples of socialism collapsing in the past. Even today. Venezuela (another thread of mine)

You're not actually impying that capatlism is winning right, we're destroying everything of REAL value, like oxygen, ocean, nature, wildlife, everything of REAL value, to aquire stuff of fabricated value, paper with values printed on them, with no actual value, which also causes alot of inequality and also has led to the accumulation of masses of real value in the hands of a few, while evry years MILLIONS die of hunger. Communism wasnt the answer, but capitalism is the biggest disaster for this planet ever....

[peligro]

What an idiot.... income inequality will be there as long as differences in experience and skills exist. Someone who is working in the McDonald's with less than two years of experience can't expect to get the same salary, which is given to someone else who is having 30-years of experience and working as an electrician.

The problem with income inequality isn't because what someone working at macdonald's makes less than someone working as an electrician.

Watch anybody who supports this find some way to blame those people who left, oh wait, people are already trying to, some people really don't understand how the real world fucking works until it hits them in the face, much like this CEO.

I don't blame those who left. But I would have gone further than that ceo. I would have turned the company into a cooperative. Doesn't mean everyone would be paid the same of course. But the people working there would have a much greater incentive to work than what they made versus their colleges then. That's the best way to address inequality.

I'm not sure that the idea of a corporative is so great. Sure, it would make them work, but will you give away hundreds of thousands to normal workers one day when your company is huge?

On top... a corporation means risks to the employees too. They are legally liable for debts the company has. So when the company goes down then the workers go down too. Who wants that?

[Wilikon]

Interesting to watch this evolve,figured there would be issues but did not expect so many from within. Sure did not take long to start eating itself.

I was shocked to see how fast that experiment collapsed. Indeed.

Or enter the Government to save everyone from the trouble they're having from all this equal pay without equal merit. Just a theory. BUT, it's interesting to see how these business decisions play out. Like the raise in minimum wage in Seattle.

Only time will tell if these moves bring more prosperity or just raise the bar at which we declare poverty.

There's no substitute for having sound skills that someone is willing to pay for...and sometimes always skills need to change match what the market needs.

We have seen multiple examples of socialism collapsing in the past. Even today. Venezuela (another thread of mine)

You're not actually impying that capatlism is winning right, we're destroying everything of REAL value, like oxygen, ocean, nature, wildlife, everything of REAL value, to aquire stuff of fabricated value, paper with values printed on them, with no actual value, which also causes alot of inequality and also has led to the accumulation of masses of real value in the hands of a few, while evry years MILLIONS die of hunger. Communism wasnt the answer, but capitalism is the biggest disaster for this planet ever....

If You Think Communism Is Bad For People, Check Out What It Did To The Environment


When the Berlin Wall came down and the Iron Curtain was finally lifted to expose the inner workings of communism to Western eyes, one of the more shocking discoveries was the nightmarish scale of environmental destruction. The statistics for East Germany alone tell a horrific tale: at the time of its reunification with West Germany an estimated 42 percent of moving water and 24 percent of still waters were so polluted that they could not be used to process drinking water, almost half of the country’s lakes were considered dead or dying and unable to sustain fish or other forms of life, and only one-third of industrial sewage along with half of domestic sewage received treatment.

An estimated 44 percent of East German forests were damaged by acid rain — little surprise given that the country produced proportionally more sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and coal dust than any other in the world. In some areas of East Germany the level of air pollution was between eight and twelve times greater than that found in West Germany, and 40 percent of East Germany’s population lived in conditions that would have justified a smog warning across the border. Only one power station in East Germany had the necessary equipment to clean sulphur from emissions.

Sten Nilsson, a Swedish forest ecologist who was kicked out of East Germany in 1986 for his efforts at collecting data on the health of its forests, said in April 1990 that many forests were “dead, completely” and described the country as “on the verge of total ecological collapse.” The environmental policy of the communist government, according to then Environment Minister Karl-Hermann Steinberg in 1990, “was not only badly designed but didn’t exist.”

Perhaps nowhere suffered more grievous environmental harm than the town of Bitterfeld. Translated as “Bitterfield” in English, its name under the communist regime would prove apt. Pronounced by Der Spiegel as Europe’s dirtiest town, Greenpeace as well as government statistics suggested it may have been the filthiest in the entire world. Home to a variety of manufacturing facilities which spewed a witch’s brew of chemical and industrial byproducts into the air and water, Bitterfeld was nothing less than an environmental horror show. This is how the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher described the town in the spring of 1990:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XIMKQ6gzGA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp_mlKJiwxg

[peligro]

I think a minimum wage is usefull as far as it means protecting the state, that are we, from sponsoring bad business models. I mean the state has to support all the workers that don't have enough to live. Which means we all pay that.

So now when an employer calculates that in he can pay less. But we sponsor his bad business model.

There has to be a limit that high that a worker can live from a fulltime job.

[Gronthaing]

We have seen multiple examples of socialism collapsing in the past. Even today. Venezuela (another thread of mine)

State capitalism and socialism aren't synonyms.

I'm not sure that the idea of a corporative is so great.

Cooperative, not corporative or corporation.

Sure, it would make them work, but will you give away hundreds of thousands to normal workers one day when your company is huge?

As opposed to giving hundreds of thousands and more to one or two people?

On top... a corporation means risks to the employees too. They are legally liable for debts the company has. So when the company goes down then the workers go down too. Who wants that?

Maybe everyone that is already working in a cooperative? And those that left capitalist enterprises to form their own company with their friends, based on them all owning it and setting their own rules. The most well known cooperative is maybe Mondragon. But they exist everywhere. Here's a small list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cooperatives

[username18333]

Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

Even Aristotle (384‒322 BCE) would not understand: “the capital or money is money because it is beloved of the one basis point” (qtd. in username18333).

[neoneros]

When you want to have equal pay, you should all have equal efforts, equal rights within the company, that will never happen. People have different motivations. They should have discussed the changes with the workers, they should have listened to the ones complaining and in stead of letting them leave find a sollution to the problems.  Giving everyone equal pay from one day to the next might make you the most popular boss for a week, but is does not take away the problems every company has, people are motivated by different means.

Money is an incentive, but you cannot just say that if flipping burgers pays less then heart surgery no one will ever put in the effort to go and be that surgeon, it would worry me that if I ever needed heart surgery that the only incentive the operating doctor has is money and not my well being or the best outcome for my heart.

Keeping people motivated can be obtained in a lot of ways, if workers slack, you should be able to point it out and take action to it, the got a big raise, but still performed badly, they could have taken a middle road there and in stead of raising their wages, cut back their working hours and maintaing their current salary, they might earn more per hour, but they have to perform less. There could be flaws there too, but when working two hours a day, in stead of eight, you might be a bit more motivated to be more productive within those two hoursof work then you would have within those eight hours. The ones who do want to work more hours and are more productive overall will get more hours paid, so more reward.
You  should not reward salary based on hours, but on productivity and competence.

[bryant.coleman]

Actually this is where all communist experiments are ended until today

The former Soviet Union had a similar pay structure. People who did the hard labor (such as agricultural workers and coal miners) earned more than the doctors and accountants. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the structure persisted. The salary of a physician in Russia and Ukraine is still one of the lowest in the world.

[wxa7115]

Actually this is where all communist experiments are ended until today

The former Soviet Union had a similar pay structure. People who did the hard labor (such as agricultural workers and coal miners) earned more than the doctors and accountants. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the structure persisted. The salary of a physician in Russia and Ukraine is still one of the lowest in the world.

Do you have any source for this? I’m very interested if you do since I didn’t know this.

As far as I know in ancient societies (capitalist societies) resources were expensive and labor was cheap (since you could always buy or enslave more people and there was no machinery) but in modern societies were modern machinery exist, resources were abundant and what was difficult to find was qualified people, so resources are cheap and labor is expensive.

[bryant.coleman]

Do you have any source for this? I’m very interested if you do since I didn’t know this.

Check this:

http://www.profi-forex.us/news/entry4000001012.html

An experienced doctor of emergency care and cardiac surgeon of N. Amosov Institute in Kiev get USD 250-340 per month

As far as I know in ancient societies (capitalist societies) resources were expensive and labor was cheap (since you could always buy or enslave more people and there was no machinery) but in modern societies were modern machinery exist, resources were abundant and what was difficult to find was qualified people, so resources are cheap and labor is expensive.

The USSR was always at a labor shortage. That is why they encouraged the couples to have more and more children. "Non-productive" groups, such as drug addicts, disabled and homosexuals were treated harshly. Until the end of 1970s, the NKVD used to shoot homosexuals on the back of their head.

[Wilikon]

Do you have any source for this? I’m very interested if you do since I didn’t know this.

Check this:

http://www.profi-forex.us/news/entry4000001012.html

An experienced doctor of emergency care and cardiac surgeon of N. Amosov Institute in Kiev get USD 250-340 per month

As far as I know in ancient societies (capitalist societies) resources were expensive and labor was cheap (since you could always buy or enslave more people and there was no machinery) but in modern societies were modern machinery exist, resources were abundant and what was difficult to find was qualified people, so resources are cheap and labor is expensive.

The USSR was always at a labor shortage. That is why they encouraged the couples to have more and more children. "Non-productive" groups, such as drug addicts, disabled and homosexuals were treated harshly. Until the end of 1970s, the Soviets used to shoot homosexuals on the back of their head.

Does that mean the best hospitals in the world are in Georgia?

 

[bryant.coleman]

Does that mean the best hospitals in the world are in Georgia?

Georgia is an emerging medical tourism destination, which attracts patients from all over the world (especially from Turkey, Middle East, and Europe). The medical education system of the former USSR was one of the best in the world. And ethnic Georgians faced no discrimination from the Slavs (unlike the case with Azeris and Uzbeks), and a large number of them graduated out of these institutions. Most of the doctors are very experienced.

[wxa7115]

Do you have any source for this? I’m very interested if you do since I didn’t know this.

Check this:

http://www.profi-forex.us/news/entry4000001012.html

An experienced doctor of emergency care and cardiac surgeon of N. Amosov Institute in Kiev get USD 250-340 per month

As far as I know in ancient societies (capitalist societies) resources were expensive and labor was cheap (since you could always buy or enslave more people and there was no machinery) but in modern societies were modern machinery exist, resources were abundant and what was difficult to find was qualified people, so resources are cheap and labor is expensive.

The USSR was always at a labor shortage. That is why they encouraged the couples to have more and more children. "Non-productive" groups, such as drug addicts, disabled and homosexuals were treated harshly. Until the end of 1970s, the NKVD used to shoot homosexuals on the back of their head.

Wow man, Thanks for the link, you rock.

I have never imagined that there was such a pay structure and such a gap in salaries between countries.

I suppose this is one more reason (as if we needed more) to avoid communism at all costs.

[Linuld]

Does that mean the best hospitals in the world are in Georgia?

Georgia is an emerging medical tourism destination, which attracts patients from all over the world (especially from Turkey, Middle East, and Europe). The medical education system of the former USSR was one of the best in the world. And ethnic Georgians faced no discrimination from the Slavs (unlike the case with Azeris and Uzbeks), and a large number of them graduated out of these institutions. Most of the doctors are very experienced.

Interesting. Are prices for cosmetic surgery very cheap too?

What i wonder is why should someone go through the trouble to get a doctor only to earn nothing at the end. Do you mean it only comes from a minority that was NOT discriminated there?

[wxa7115]

What i wonder is why should someone go through the trouble to get a doctor only to earn nothing at the end. Do you mean it only comes from a minority that was NOT discriminated there?

Well, in communist countries education tends to be very cheap or free and can be of excellent quality, the problem is that there is no place for this people to work.