The Raise that Roared

[spuwho]

And now for the rest of the story:

The CEO Paying Everyone $70,000 Salaries Has Something to Hide
Inside the viral story of Gravity CEO Dan Price

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-gravity-ceo-dan-price/

As we talked about his wild six months, I brought up the lawsuit, asking if Price thought Gravity's spending on the raises triggered his brother's suit, as he'd implied. "I have no idea," he slowly shrugged, looking right at me. "The quote in the Seattle Times from his attorney was, 'It wasn't only because of that.' " He twisted his beard between two fingers, contemplating the statement by Lucas's attorney, Greg Hollon. "That one singular quote in the paper is the only information I have about if they were connected or not."

It's a poignant story, one that I almost wrote. Until I realized Price knew more than he was letting on. The lawsuit couldn't have been prompted by the pay raise—if anything, it may have been the other way around. And his salary before the big announcement was unusually high. As I read through the court record and media reports, I began to see how Price was writing his own origin myth one interview at a time. With what he says is a $500,000 book deal, he's solidifying his place as the next do-gooder businessman, joining the CEOs of bigger companies, such as Zappos's Tony Hsieh and Whole Foods Market's John Mackey. In the process, he's surely become the only credit card processing executive to be feted by Esquire, courted by literary agents, and swooned at by women on social media who declared him "yum." But how it all happened is a little more complicated.

I read this story and some of the other investigative journalism around the CEO of Gravity Payments.  Clearly things are not as they appear.

Actually after the lawsuit, the guy has been accelerating his persona in the press, hiring agents, signing a book deal and flying to any/all TV cameras available. It's not about his company, its all him, him, him. Don't let the guy fool you.

[fsquid]

also doesn't seem to be working out for Seattle's unskilled labor force either.

http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/the-bitter-lesson-from-seattles-minimum-wage-hike/

[Adam White]

Fuck the poor. It's their fault they have no money anyway.

[Snufflee]

also doesn't seem to be working out for Seattle's unskilled labor force either.

http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/the-bitter-lesson-from-seattles-minimum-wage-hike/

Yeah, real enlightened and unbiased reporting there. "That this destructive policy is a plank in a major political party's platform is nothing short of a national disgrace."

I agree, there isnt enough long term data to support it either way yet. Technology was going to come into play to lower operating costs regardless of the higher minimum wage. To say it is a failure at this point is not balanced reporting and when the data comes in over several years then we can make an educated decision of whether it was successful or not and is there a better way (EIC Increase) to ensure a fair wage.

[finehoe]

also doesn't seem to be working out for Seattle's unskilled labor force either.

http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/the-bitter-lesson-from-seattles-minimum-wage-hike/

"...these outcomes fit comfortably into a view well understood by minimum-wage advocates and increasingly accepted by economists: most increases have their intended effect of lifting the pay of low-wage workers with little in the way of job losses.

Yet, despite these expected, generally positive findings, the study's press coverage has been pretty negative. Attacks from knee-jerk opponents of the minimum wage — who in some cases are paid by the low-wage employer and lobby to shoot at anything that moves, regardless of the evidence — were expected and are easily dismissed. But writers who are typically more careful have also erroneously declared that "employment went down" in Seattle as a result of the increase (employment actually went up in Seattle relative to past trends), or that it "did little to help workers." In reality, what's unfolding in Seattle thus far reflects the conclusion of a recent, exhaustive review of the minimum-wage literature by Dale Belman and Paul Wolfson: "While not a full solution to the issues of low-wage work, [the minimum wage] is a useful instrument of policy that has low social costs and clear benefits."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/08/10/so-far-the-seattle-minimum-wage-increase-is-doing-what-its-supposed-to-do