You can't help but love the "conclusion" drawn in this article

[ark steel]

http://www.cheatsheet.com/money-car...ment-reveals-a-dark-truth.html/?ref=YF&tpl=op

But it speaks to a certain psychological element that we see in many aspects of society — lots of people are only happy with success when it means that others around them are worse-off. It’s “crab mentality” at its finest — the view that the world is a zero-sum game, and that instead of everyone being better off, we need to have some losers.

Wow. Elfie will be proud

Earlier this year, a small Seattle-based payment processing company made headlines when its 31-year-old CEO made a rather jarring change to the company’s pay structure: Gravity Payments would pay all employees, at a bare minimum, $70,000 annually. It was met with a variety of reactions, ranging from those who said CEO Dan Price was establishing himself as a working-class hero, to those who thought he was actively destroying the fabric of society as we know it.
The truth is, Price had read a study that said the optimal level of happiness can be achieved with an income at around $70,000, and decided that he was in a position to make a difference. So he acted on it — by cutting his own salary by 90%.



Now, with several months having passed, we’re beginning to see the fallout. Recently, a slew of articles and media attention has returned to Price’s company. But this time, it hasn’t been quite as positive.
“A Company Copes With Backlash Against the Raise That Roared,” reads a New York Times headline. “CEO counting cost of £45,000 minimum wage decision,” says another, from The Telegraph. Many others are circulating as well, all spelling doom for Gravity Payments, with Price’s minimum wage policy as the chief reason for the company’s issues. As these articles explain, the company did lose business — from clients anticipating fee increases, and others who didn’t want to be associated with what they felt was a political statement.
But lost in a whirlwind of “I told you so” is the fact that Price’s experiment hasn’t really failed. In fact, Gravity Payments is still chugging along. If you were to actually dig into the meat of the doomsayers’ arguments, it turns out that even though the company has lost a handful of clients, it’s signed on even more — so many more that it’s had to go on a hiring spree.
The other unintended side effect of Price’s minimum wage policy has come from within the company. According to reports, Gravity Payments lost two of their rock star employees, both who evidently thought it was unfair that other employees were getting big pay bumps, while not necessarily contributing as much to the company’s success. Essentially, it rubbed them the wrong way that a receptionist was getting a huge raise, while not working harder than they were. They felt that the value of their skills had been diminished.
It’s easy to sympathize with that point of view — we’re seeing similar sentiments pop up all over the country as calls for $15 minimum wages for fast food workers and others start to gain momentum. Basically, people don’t feel like someone who simply cooks fries, serves drinks, or parks cars should be paid that much. It diminishes their own wages as a result, and drives down their purchasing power as businesses adjust prices to absorb the increased labor costs.
And this is the dark truth at the heart of the matter. For the employees who left Gravity Payments, and the others who feel the need to criticize minimum wage bumps, there’s something else at play. The Gravity Payments employees who quit didn’t see their pay go down, or see a negative externality as a result of their coworkers’ wages going up (perhaps their workload increased with an influx of new clients, but we can’t be sure). Yet, they were unhappy that their coworkers were better off.
That’s not to say that Gravity Payments isn’t going to experience some troubled times, and have to deal with some turbulent cash-flow situations and legal problems. And if the individuals who resigned weren’t happy, then by all means, they should have left. Assuming these individuals are as skilled as is being reported, they shouldn’t have trouble finding other work.
But it speaks to a certain psychological element that we see in many aspects of society — lots of people are only happy with success when it means that others around them are worse-off. It’s “crab mentality” at its finest — the view that the world is a zero-sum game, and that instead of everyone being better off, we need to have some losers.
That mentality will continue to boil up as inequality and minimum wage issues remain at the forefront of American minds. There’s no obvious or evident solution, but writing off Price’s Gravity Payments experiment as a loss doesn’t make much sense, at least at this point.
For Gravity Payments, it comes down to a simple trade-off: is losing two valued employees worth gaining a ton of exposure, clients, and applicants? Time may prove Price wrong, but at this time, it’s too early to tell.

 

[Steeltime]

Those wage limitations are generally phony short-term publicity stunts. Remember Ben & Jerry's limiting CEO pay to no more than 5 times the lowest wages paid to a full-time employee? Yeah, about that ...

Ben & Jerry's once, admirably, had a 5 to 1 rule limiting the pay of its CEO -- $81,000 -- to the company's lowest paid worker. It required the CEO to raise the pay of his employees to create a pay raise for himself. Ben & Jerry's abandoned that rule in 1994 when the company couldn't find anyone to replace Ben Cohen upon his retirement.

During the 1990s, the 5 to 1 rule became a 7 to 1 rule, lifting the CEO's salary to $150,000. By 2000, the CEO's pay rose to 17 to 1, or $504,848, not including stock options.

At that point, Ben & Jerry's was acquired by Unilever (UL) and the company stopped disclosing details about its CEO's pay. The board of directors no longer discloses its compensation either, even though board chairman Jeff Dossier claims he is "dedicated to creating a more just world." The compensation of current CEO Jostein Solheim is now a secret. That's less disclosure than is offered by Ben & Jerry's larger corporate parent.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/occupy-wall-street-why-ben-jerrys-endorsement-rings-hollow/

 

[Sarge]

So everyone should be rich and happy and not have to earn it? ****, sign me up. I am going to find this Gravity payments place. $70K to be the receptionist? I'll be the best receptionist on Earth.

 

[ark steel]

So everyone should be rich and happy and not have to earn it? ****, sign me up. I am going to find this Gravity payments place. $70K to be the receptionist? I'll be the best receptionist on Earth.

it just seems crazy to me that someone would think that the only reason I expect our receptionist to earn significantly less than I do is because I won't be happy unless she is worse off. Ignore the fact that there aren't a lot of people in the country that can do my job (or would even want to do it) and several million that can do hers. It's only because I need to see her worse off to stay happy.

 

[Superman]

it just seems crazy to me that someone would think that the only reason I expect our receptionist to earn significantly less than I do is because I won't be happy unless she is worse off. Ignore the fact that there aren't a lot of people in the country that can do my job (or would even want to do it) and several million that can do hers. It's only because I need to see her worse off to stay happy.

you're never happy unless someone of color is worse off. it's an extra bonus if that person of color is a woman.
sexist racist

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Not everyone produces $70,000 worth of productivity. If the receptionist is paid $70,000 but is only really worth say, $35,000, then the difference has to be made up by paying 10 other workers $3500 less than you would otherwise. So the guy who should be making $100,000 based on what he produces (ark) is instead only paid $96,500.
Therefore Socialism.

 

[Troglodyte]

My boss recently resigned to take a job that pays less money. They asked me and others within the company if we were interested in replacing her and we passed because like her, we didn't feel the demands of the job were worth the money. More or less, it's a non executive position with non executive pay but executive level demands.

Sounds like this guy created a similar problem that currently exists at my work.

 

[SteelChip]

So everyone should be rich and happy and not have to earn it? ****, sign me up. I am going to find this Gravity payments place. $70K to be the receptionist? I'll be the best receptionist on Earth.

Exactly Sarge, there may be people pissed off at that secretary but there are people that would embrace that situation too. In fact, there are a lot of people out there that are completely happy working 40 hours a week and making decent money. As long as they make enough for the basics and some left over. They just do not want the responsibility and time away from family just to make the 'big bucks'. I have found many just such people in my travels that were very overqualified. underpaid and happy as a hobo with a ham sammich to do just what they were doing till they were done with doin' it.

I made that mistake early in my career and often wonder where I would have ended if I hadn't. I never really made it to the 'big bucks' category but I ventured into the " commitment to job" category that necessitated much time away from home and a 24 hour a day availability for some more money and stock options to be evaluated at some future date.

Thankfully I parleyed that into an early retirement and a stake in my own home based venture but my daughter was already grown, married and had kids of her own and I never got to enjoy her " growing up " years, hell I barely remember seein' them. There's always a trade off for those that choose a certain career path and ya may not realize what that is till it's too late to undo.

 

[Rod Farva]

So everyone should be rich and happy and not have to earn it? ****, sign me up. I am going to find this Gravity payments place. $70K to be the receptionist? I'll be the best receptionist on Earth.

Why? According to this philosophy you could be the worst receptionist on earth and still make bank. **** effort.

you're never happy unless someone of color is worse off. it's an extra bonus if that person of color is a woman.
sexist racist

Well, duh.........

 

[hamster]

I made that mistake early in my career and often wonder where I would have ended if I hadn't. I never really made it to the 'big bucks' category but I ventured into the " commitment to job" category that necessitated much time away from home and a 24 hour a day availability for some more money and stock options to be evaluated at some future date.

Thankfully I parleyed that into an early retirement and a stake in my own home based venture but my daughter was already grown, married and had kids of her own and I never got to enjoy her " growing up " years, hell I barely remember seein' them. There's always a trade off for those that choose a certain career path and ya may not realize what that is till it's too late to undo.

You will never find me saying..."I regret not having spent more time at the office. "

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Thing is, I own and run a real business, although small, where I cut real paychecks and send real money to the government and have to find enough customers to bring in the money to do that, plus have enough left over to pay myself. I would love to pay all my employees $15 an hour, and the world would love me to do that too, except the world is full of hypocritical ************* who won't pay what I'd have to charge to do that. See the Seattle restaurant business.

 

[DBS1970]

Not everyone produces $70,000 worth of productivity. If the receptionist is paid $70,000 but is only really worth say, $35,000, then the difference has to be made up by paying 10 other workers $3500 less than you would otherwise. So the guy who should be making $100,000 based on what he produces (ark) is instead only paid $96,500.
Therefore Socialism.

I tried to explain this to my older sister on Facebook when I was debunking a Bernie Sanders meme she posted. She has since unfriended me.

it just seems crazy to me that someone would think that the only reason I expect our receptionist to earn significantly less than I do is because I won't be happy unless she is worse off. Ignore the fact that there aren't a lot of people in the country that can do my job (or would even want to do it) and several million that can do hers. It's only because I need to see her worse off to stay happy.

The whole tone of the article seems to be: See, see it will work we told you so. When in fact the author is not looking at the whole picture. This is a small company with low overhead and a lot of revenue generated by its workers. Companies that have to have a large production space selling widgets for $3 a copy cant do this type of thing.

 

[IndySteel]

3-D printers are going to kill a lot of jobs and companies.

 

[deljzc]

I don't like the idea of one nationwide minimum wage because standards of living vary greatly across the country.

I sort of think .03% of the "Gross Median Income" level for areas (and we can decide how to divvy up areas any reasonable way you want, MSA's, by county, etc.) as the minimum wage seems fair to me.

For most rural america at $30,000 median income levels, that's $9/hour. More than current, but doable. Most major cities are in the $45-$50k median incomes and you're looking at $13.50/hour. For the most expensive MSA's out there: San Francisco and New York City, you are close to $18/hour. And I can honestly tell you $18 in Manhattan is equal to $9 where my family is from in Central PA.

It wouldn't be that hard to implement something like this. It's just common sense. And if you think .03% is too high, so be it. We can debate the actual percentage, but the logic is still the same.

 

[Rod Farva]

Or people could just stop thinking that minimum wage is what you need to raise a family.

 

[jitter77]

3-D printers are going to kill a lot of jobs and companies.

I'm not sure.. 3D Printers are cool, but really slow. We were trying to get a small plastic piece replicated for my work and the guy told us it would take a couple hours to print. This piece is only like 1" by 2" by 2"..

 

[ark steel]

I'm not sure.. 3D Printers are cool, but really slow. We were trying to get a small plastic piece replicated for my work and the guy told us it would take a couple hours to print. This piece is only like 1" by 2" by 2"..

3D printers seem like a boon to print all those plastic pieces, knobs and **** in car interiors. I've looked off and on try and find someone to do it, but haven't had any luck.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

3-D printers are going to kill a lot of jobs and companies.

Maybe, but we can fix President Hillary's gun confiscation with that.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I don't like the idea of one nationwide minimum wage because standards of living vary greatly across the country.

I sort of think .03% of the "Gross Median Income" level for areas (and we can decide how to divvy up areas any reasonable way you want, MSA's, by county, etc.) as the minimum wage seems fair to me.

For most rural america at $30,000 median income levels, that's $9/hour. More than current, but doable. Most major cities are in the $45-$50k median incomes and you're looking at $13.50/hour. For the most expensive MSA's out there: San Francisco and New York City, you are close to $18/hour. And I can honestly tell you $18 in Manhattan is equal to $9 where my family is from in Central PA.

It wouldn't be that hard to implement something like this. It's just common sense. And if you think .03% is too high, so be it. We can debate the actual percentage, but the logic is still the same.

I'd rather let the market set the pay rates. $15 an hour is quite good money here but you couldn't get by on that in NYC. If you can't find or retain employees, then you pay more and charge more. I've gotten to be sort of cold-blooded about it since I deal with this directly. When I have years like this year where I can't find people then I raise prices so that I can 1) pay more since my employees get paid a percentage of each job and 2) get rid of some clients, especially low-profit ones. If I raise prices across the board and lose 10 or 12 clients as a result, then I say **** it because I don't have enough employees to do the work anyway and I make more money from the ones I have left.

The other thing that people who are not in business don't realize is that raising wages increases the cost for other things too. Let's assume I have someone who I pay for 40 hours a week. The govt mandates that I pay them another $1 an hour. That's $40 per week and $2080 per year. My employer share of FICA is 7.65% because that FICA you see on your check stub is only the half that you pay. That's an additional $159.12 a year. In my line of work workmens' comp insurance is hideously expensive at 12% of payroll, so that's an additional $249.60. Liability insurance is about 3% of payroll so add $62.40. State unemployment insurance is 3.7% so add $76.96. Federal unemployment is fairly small at 0.8% so add $16.64. So mandating that I pay another $1 an hour adds $2,644.72 for each $1 per hour per employee. Currently I have 11 employees in the field (office staff has a vastly lower workmens' comp rate) so that will cost me another $29,091.92 a year. If I have to raise my wages from $10 an hour to $15 then my annual labor cost will increase by $145,459.60. Will my customers want to pay the extra I would have to charge them to pay that? Probably not, especially when my main competition is people who work under the table and don't pay any of those taxes and insurance.

 

[jitter77]

3D printers seem like a boon to print all those plastic pieces, knobs and **** in car interiors. I've looked off and on try and find someone to do it, but haven't had any luck.

I work in a nursing home and we were trying to replicate a plastic bushing for an over teh bed tray table. All the piece does is keep the shaft from wobbling in the base. Of course the company will not sell us the bushing so if one is broke / missing we have to buy a whole new tray table for $100. I found a place in Greensburg that does 3d printing, but he said 3d printing is more for prototype things or one of a kind things. It is not to mass produce pieces like we are looking for. He said it would take a couple hours just to print one out and each table would require two. It would not be cost effective / efficient for us to do that.
If you have not seen a 3d printer it is kinda like a hot glue gun. It uses spools of plastic and melts / cools it as it goes along. It prints 1 layer at a time from the bottom up. He had some samples in his shop and you can see the layers on the objects. A small object has 100s of layers on it. Here is the link to the place we went. http://www.bdgcustoms.com/3d_printing.html He also does some cool laser ingraving stuff. Those items were really nice...

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I work in a nursing home and we were trying to replicate a plastic bushing for an over teh bed tray table. All the piece does is keep the shaft from wobbling in the base. Of course the company will not sell us the bushing so if one is broke / missing we have to buy a whole new tray table for $100. I found a place in Greensburg that does 3d printing, but he said 3d printing is more for prototype things or one of a kind things. It is not to mass produce pieces like we are looking for. He said it would take a couple hours just to print one out and each table would require two. It would not be cost effective / efficient for us to do that.
If you have not seen a 3d printer it is kinda like a hot glue gun. It uses spools of plastic and melts / cools it as it goes along. It prints 1 layer at a time from the bottom up. He had some samples in his shop and you can see the layers on the objects. A small object has 100s of layers on it. Here is the link to the place we went. http://www.bdgcustoms.com/3d_printing.html He also does some cool laser ingraving stuff. Those items were really nice...

Like most technology though, over time it will get faster and cheaper.

 

[ark steel]

I work in a nursing home and we were trying to replicate a plastic bushing for an over teh bed tray table. All the piece does is keep the shaft from wobbling in the base. Of course the company will not sell us the bushing so if one is broke / missing we have to buy a whole new tray table for $100. I found a place in Greensburg that does 3d printing, but he said 3d printing is more for prototype things or one of a kind things. It is not to mass produce pieces like we are looking for. He said it would take a couple hours just to print one out and each table would require two. It would not be cost effective / efficient for us to do that.
If you have not seen a 3d printer it is kinda like a hot glue gun. It uses spools of plastic and melts / cools it as it goes along. It prints 1 layer at a time from the bottom up. He had some samples in his shop and you can see the layers on the objects. A small object has 100s of layers on it. Here is the link to the place we went. http://www.bdgcustoms.com/3d_printing.html He also does some cool laser ingraving stuff. Those items were really nice...

I havent seen the results up close only watched them work on tv.

We have a plastic piece we need for an antique pinball machine that may require we do something like that.