SEATTLE–Credit unions already facing stiff challenges in payments and in recruiting and retaining staff in a tight market now face a new standard: a company paying a minimum $70,000 annual salary to all employees.
Dan Price, the CEO of Seattle-based Gravity Payments, said all of the employees in the company's new Boise, Idaho, office will make at least $70,000 by 2024.
In an announcement made via Twitter, Price said, “This morning we cut the ribbon on the new @GravityPymts Boise office AND announced that all of our employees here will start earning our $70k min salary. I'm so grateful to work with this amazing team and to be able to compensate them for the value they bring to our community."
Gravity Payments acquired the Boise office when it bought a company formerly known as ChargeItPro, a card processing firm.
Gravity Payments has earned attention for its pay practices in the past. In 2015, Price announced he was boosting employee pay after he read a study about happiness that found additional income can make a significant difference in a person's emotional well-being up to the point when they earn $75,000 a year.
CEO Cuts Salary
As a result he increased the salaries of his 120 employees in Seattle to a minimum of $70,000, and reduced his own $1 million salary by 90% to make it happen.
That move doubled the pay of about 30 of his workers and gave an additional 40 significant raises.
Price has continued to call on other business leaders to do the same.