Seattle CEO Dan Price ‘struggling to make ends meet’ after wage hike for workers

HE ATTRACTED the world’s attention when he raised the salaries of all of his employees to at least $91,000. But the plan has backfired big time.

A SEATTLE boss who famously slashed his own pay to boost the salaries of his workers is now struggling to make ends meet.

Dan Price, 31, generated headlines four months ago when he announced he would cut his own salary by 90 per cent in order to set a $91,000 (US$70,000) annual minimum wage for all 120 workers at his credit card processing firm Gravity Payments, of which he is founder and chief executive.

Now, Price has admitted to The New York Times he has since fallen on such hard times he’s been forced to rent out his home.

“I’m working as hard as I ever worked to make it work,” he said.

“I’m renting out my house right now to try to make ends meet myself.”

Price said the decision to boost salaries also cost him a few customers and two of his “most valued” employees, who quit after newer and less skilled workers ended up with bigger salary hikes than those who had spent more time with the company.

“He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump,” Gravity’s financial manager Maisey McMaster told The Times.

News of Dan Price’s wage spike decision went viral earlier this year.

McMaster, 26, who has quit the company, said Price treated her as if she was being selfish when she told him of her concerns with the wage changes.

“That really hurt me,” she said. “I was taking about not only me, but everyone.”

Price’s wage decision has won new clients but those accounts won’t generate profits for at least a year, The Times reported.

And to make things worse, his brother Lucas Price, who owns 30 per cent of the company, is taking him to court, accusing Dan of taking millions of dollars out of the company while denying Lucas the benefits of his minority ownership.

“We don’t have a margin of error to pay those legal fees,” Dan Price said.