Episode 121 - CEOs Part 4 - Could CEOs Afford To Pay Us The “Happiness Index”?
CEOs make all the money in the world. Literally. So why can’t they pay employees a living wage? Or maybe even the Happiness Index…?
Seven years ago Dan Price was the first CEO in America to raise the base pay at his company to the Happiness Index (around $70,000 at the time). In return he was lambasted across social media, called a socialist by conservative news hosts, and accused of playing political stunts to drum up interest in his company.
Today Todd and Joe want to take another look at Gravity, the company that almost collapsed when it started paying its wage-slave phone operators the same as air traffic controllers and power plant techs. We want to know: if some CEOs are making 1,000 times the salary of their lowest employees, why can’t they afford to raise wages? Does Jeff Bezos really need to get into space so badly he can’t match the county’s living wage? And what ever happened to Dan’s company? CEOs and capitalists claim raising wages would bury businesses overnight. So surely, Gravity is a smoldering hipster crater by now. Right, guys? Right…?
Sources:
https://www.inc.com/magazine/201511/paul-keegan/does-more-pay-mean-more-growth.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101205234308.htm https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
https://www.businessinsider.com/gravity-payments-dan-price-ceo-raise-minimum-wage-revenue-2021-8
https://hbr.org/1990/05/ceo-incentives-its-not-how-much-you-pay-but-how
https://livingwage.mit.edu/counties/41067
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/seattle-ceo-dan-price-pleads-not-guilty-to-misdemeanor-assault-charges/#:~:text=Seattle%20CEO%20Dan%20Price%20pleads%20not%20guilty%20to%20misdemeanor%20assault%20charges,-May%2031%2C%202022&text=Dan%20Price%2C%20a%20Seattle%2Dbased,reckless%20driving%20in%20court%20Tuesday
https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2019/04/02/the-politics-of-ceos/