Gravity Payments is a private credit card processing and financial services company founded by Dan and Lucas Price. Dan Price, the CEO, created the company because he believed that credit card companies were overcharging small businesses. Gravity Payments became the largest credit card processor in the state of Washington, while charging less than half of the industry average processing rate. Dan Price has a philanthropic operating model, as Gravity Payments is heavily involved in donating to charities, and in April 2015, Price set a new minimum salary of $70,000 for all of his 120 employees. While initially received with overwhelming support, some people expressed their concerns about the decision and questioned the feasibility of the wage increase, including Lucas Price who decided to sue Dan. Other options that Dan Price could have pursued are doing nothing, adding a set amount to each employee’s wage, increasing employee compensation using shares, or restructuring internal operations by adding incentives and increasing employee empowerment. The criteria that will be used to evaluate each decision are employee satisfaction, employee motivation, profit maximization, and brand image.
The option to do nothing would benefit Gravity Payments because the company would not incur a massive increase in wage expenses, making it a good option for profit maximization. Secondly, the lawsuit filed by Lucas Price, Dan’s older brother, would not happen, which would not only increase Dan’s happiness but also reduce bad press facing the company. Thirdly, Gravity Payments would retain its two most important employees who left directly because of the minimum wage decision as they believed that it was unfair to the more valuable workers. A disadvantage of this option is that Price’s moral concerns about socioeconomic inequality would be completely ignored. Another disadvantage is that Gravity Payments would miss out on the massive, positive, media coverage that resulted because of the wage increase, leaving its brand image the same as before. Lastly, both employee motivation and satisfaction would remain unchanged, and this is an issue because the lowest and average salary at the firm is $34,000 and $48,000 respectively, which
According to our point of view, this decision will harm to the lowest paid workers and profitable for big businesses. From economic point of view, if there is a cut in employee’s wages then their income will fall and they will spend less, moreover, there is a positive correlation
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During all the history of minimum wages a bunch of studies were made to analyse the effects that the minimum wage changes can bring to employee’s life. In the oldest studies, the institutions that worked on it couldn’t find a significant change on the employees, job searches and employee’s behaviours. The only fact that was noticed was the
The issue of the minimum wage has recently come to the forefront of the debate on social policy. There is much disagreement over the wisdom of an increase in the minimum wage in the current fragile economic recovery. Some argue that a dramatic increase is what is needed in order to lift the standard of living for those in the bottom of the economic pyramid. Economists reason that the basic principle of supply and demand mandates than an increase in the wage would result in the loss of available jobs. Small businesses maintain that it would spell their doom.
The controversy over what to establish as the official minimum wage in the United States has been debated and argued over for many years. Due to inflation, the gradual increase of pricings due to a saturation of printed currency, the minimum wage for workers has to be increased in order to compensate for the ever-fluctuating value of the U.S. Dollar. Many today are rising to the conclusion that a minimum wage of fifteen dollars an hour is necessary. This motion is designed to keep those who have minimum wage income out of poverty and to increase the amount of money in the consumer’s pocket overall. However, this particular increase in minimum wage will lead to the inevitable downfall of the United States’ economy and be a catastrophe for the working class.
There has been many conversations about what the positive impacts can come to America 's lowest income workers as a result of an increase in the minimum wage, and there has also been equally as many discussions over the negative effects the increase can have on similar people. This paper’s purpose is to combine each viewpoint and objectively analyze the arguments for and against an increase in the minimum wage. I will first discuss the benefits for an increase, then the disadvantages, and in the last paragraph, I will
Beside the increase in cost to businesses and customers, other people can potentially be hurt by this policy. By increasing the wage, small businesses will suffer a higher cost that can lead to cutting jobs, stalling new hire or even shutting down. On the other hand, the economic plight of these minimum wage workers should also be considered. Therefore, the $15 plan would produce unpredictable consequences, while not doing anything would doom minimum wage workers to live in in poverty and to consume public resources.
This paper will explore the pros and cons of raising the current minimum wage to $15.00. It will start with the history and reasons for the minimum wage. It will cite the positive aspects for raising it, as well as the negative consequences of that action. It will then touch on actual cases presently, within the U.S. economy. Finally, I will present my conclusion.
First this paper will discuss the purpose of the bill, second this paper will highlight the potentiality of raised prices within the economy as well as the general effect among society, next this paper will explain how increased minimum wages will produce a decrease in human labor within the workforce, and finally this paper will prove why this bill is truly unnecessary for Americans.
Presently, the citizens of the United States of America are involved in an impassioned debate over the federal minimum wage. As of October 5, 2016, the federal minimum wage is set at seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour. There are numerous amounts of stakeholders when it comes to minimum wage. The three stakeholders mentioned in this essay will be Companies, Employees, and the Economy. In addition to the stakeholders, this essay will also dig into the history of the United States Federal Minimum Wage and see how it has progressed over the years and if it kept up with inflation over the years. With this information, society will see what an increase to the federal minimum wage will have on the United States economy and labor force.
Mike Durant once said, “Making it more expensive to create new jobs is a perfect way to guarantee fewer of them.” The recent, “Raise the Wage” campaigns have sparked an interest in many low-wage workers. However, those who support this initiative are unaware of the economic problems that will arise if this is successful. Several cities have already raised their minimum wages and some, like Seattle, are raising it as high as $15 per hour. Currently, supporters of this campaign argue that the government should implement this increase federally. However, doing so will have broad and adverse financial implications. Ever since the Great Depression, the minimum wage has been in effect — to reduce poverty and solidify that
Proponents of raising the minimum wage claim that if the minimum wage was raised, then many economic and social problems would be alleviated. This contention is at odds both with economic principles and years of creditable research. The effect of raising or even having a minimum wage has been studied extensively and the majority of studies have proven that raising a minimum wage does not have the desired effect. Both micro and macroeconomic forces affect the results of raising the minimum wage. The secondary effects of raising the minimum wage are bad both for
I agree with this article, written by Niels Veldhuis, to the extent that minimum wage negatively affects the economy, by increasing unemployment. However, if I were Veldhuis I would have added that the social values of minimum wage may outweigh the negative effects on the economy. This matter is a value judgement, which cannot be proved right or wrong by economics. Veldhuis supports his statement with proof from studies; I will explain these findings with further microeconomic theory. I will discuss the following to reflect upon the accuracy of his arguments: theories of producer behavior and cost minimization, market equilibrium, welfare, and the importance of value judgements.
In a paper titled “Four Reasons Not to Increase the Minimum Wage,” the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, offers four empirically backed consequences of increasing the minimum wage; these consequences include: the loss of jobs, low skilled workers being disproportionally affected and priced out of the job market, a minimal effect on reducing poverty, and higher prices for goods. The paper compiles a number of studies to support these
Dan Price as the founder of Gravity Payments, who took a US$930,000 pay cut in order to bring up the minimum wage of his company in America. In doing so, out of his 120 employees, 70 will be getting a pay raise and 30 will get double their current income. For Price, this means reducing his US$1 million annual salary to US$70,000. He is hoping to forward more income equality to his workforce by this move. The reason for this movement is that Dan Price has been inspired from a Princeton study, who reaches a conclusion that “the perfect salary for happiness is about US$75,000.” (Levy, 2015) From an interview with times magazine, Price explains how once you know that it’s the right thing to do and that you will definitely get more out of it than harm. He quoted from the study: “The dollars that you’re making underneath that amount are causing harm to your well-being” (Torabi, 2015) It is with that Dan Price understood how imperative it is that when you have the authority and ability to allow your employees to live life to their fullest, their potential becomes several folds more.