Saint Leo University Gravity Payments Discussion

Answer questions below by after reading case study.

1.Is Price demonstrating elements of corporate social responsibility by his actions in this case, or not?

2. How is Price exhibiting the fourth Phase of Corporate Citizenship (Figure 3.2, 1990s to present: Corporate/Global Citizenship) in his actions at Gravity Payments?

Best practices for discussion posts – remember discussions require at least 2 external references (in addition to your textbook) be used in your posts, and at least 1 reference in your responses. All references should be in APA 7th edition formatting and using in-text citation.

Discussion Case: corporate social responsibility

Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Payments, a small, privately owned company that provided high-service and low-cost credit card processing, surprised his 120-person staff when he announced in 2015 that over the next three years he would raise the salary of all employees, even the lowest paid clerk, customer service representative, and salesperson, to a minimum of $70,000. The average annual salary at that time at Gravity was around $48,000, so the increase would nearly double some employees’ salaries. Price explained that he would pay for the wage increases by cutting his own salary from nearly $1 million to $70,000 and using 75 to 80 percent of the company’s anticipated $2.2 million in profit.

Price’s announcement was met with mixed reactions. Some employees were thrilled, clapping and whooping when they heard the announcement. “I’m freaking out,” said one employee. Others—many from the financial services community—said that this was just a costly publicity stunt. The conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh said he “smelled a socialist agenda.” However, others were supportive. Other talk show hosts lined up interviews with Price. Job seekers by the thousands sent in résumés. Harvard business professors flew out to Gravity Payment’s headquarters to conduct a case study. Third graders wrote Price thank-you notes, and single women wanted to date him.

Price was no stranger to the spotlight. He had earned the honor of Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014 from Enterprise Magazine. GeekWire named Price its Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013, and in 2010 he received the Small Business Administration’s National Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Price also annually donated 10 percent of Gravity’s profits to charity. The equitable employee salary announcement seemed like another step toward achieving Price’s goals as a business owner.

Price launched Gravity (a name, Price explained, that was selected since “you could understand [it] on the phone”) while attending college, but the firm actually grew out of a technology consulting business he created while in high school. His goal was to manage credit card transactions for small businesses, like coffeehouses, in a more affordable and transparent way. “I never intended to make a lot of money, or really any,” said Price. “I was really upset at this industry for the way they were treating my [consulting] clients, and I just wanted to blow the thing up. So I was like, ‘I’m going to charge a third of what everyone [else does].’”

Financial analysts recognized Gravity Payments’ success; his company processed nearly $10 billion in credit card transactions and generated revenues of about $150 million annually. When asked why he did not “cash out,” Price responded, “I’ll ask my friends who have sold their businesses, ‘Did that business get to the goal that you originally had in mind?’ And they’re all happy they sold because of the phenomenal financial outcome. But when I ask them, ‘Did you actually accomplish the nonfinancial goal that you set out in starting a business?’ . . . they almost all say no.”

Price encountered hard times in 2008 when Gravity lost 20 percent of its revenue nearly overnight because customers were running less volume through the system during the economic recession. Price recalled that half of his staff was in his office asking for raises and the other half was definitely afraid they were going to lose their jobs. So, he called his employees together and explained that the company had eight months of cash in the bank. “If we hold our expenses steady and just sell the same amount every month for five months, we’ll get back to break-even and not have to do any benefit cuts, any layoffs, anything like that,” he told his staff. Given Price’s response during the economically challenging times, page 70it did not surprise his employees when he took the bold move of promising every employee a salary of $70,000 annually.

Price’s commitment to a new company minimum wage captured national attention given the soaring disparity between executives’ pay and that of their employees. In the United States, where the pay gap was the greatest for any country, chief executives earned more than 300 times what the average worker made (as discussed in more detail in Chapter 13). Some people, like Gilded Age’s executive J. Pierpont Morgan and management scholar Peter Drucker, advocated a 20-to-1 executive to average employee ratio. Price’s 1-to-1 ratio was unprecedented in the business community. “The market rate for me as a CEO compared to a regular person is ridiculous, it’s absurd,” explained Price, who admitted that his only main extravagances were snowboarding and picking up the bar bill for his friends. He drove a 12-year-old Audi, which he received in a barter for service from the local dealer. “As much as I’m a capitalist, there is nothing in the market that is making me do it,” said Price, referring to paying wages that would make it possible for his employees “to go after their own American dream, buy a house and pay for their children’s education.”

Price admitted that hearing his employees’ problems with making ends meet on wages that were well above the $7.50 per hour minimum wage or even at $40,000 a year “just eats at me inside.” He wanted to address the social issue of wage inequality and felt that as a business leader he was in a position to do something, but he wanted to do something that would not result in raising prices for his customers or cutting back on services. Hayley Vogt, a 24-year-old communications coordinator at Gravity who earned $45,000 annually, said, “I’m completely blown away right now [after hearing Price’s announcement].” She said she had worried about covering rent increases and a recent emergency room bill. “Everyone is talking about this $15 minimum wage in Seattle and it’s nice to work someplace where someone is actually doing something about it and not just talking about it.”

Fifteen months after Price’s unprecedented announcement, his employees decided that he should not be driving around in his outdated Audi, so they bought him a Tesla. Price posted to his Facebook page, “Gravity employees saved up and pitched in over the past six months and bought me my dream car. A brand new, gorgeous blue #Tesla. Still in shock. How do I even begin to say thank you?” As for the pay raises, commentators remained divided. Paul Davidson, of USA Today, commented, “Big pay hikes may yield surprisingly beneficial results, especially in the current tight labor market.” Yet, other experts said that the outsized, across-the-board increase Price shelled out should not set a benchmark for most companies.

Sources: “One Company’s New Minimum Wage: $70,000 a Year,” The New York Times, April 13, 2015, www.nytimes.com; “A Company Copes with Backlash Against the Raise that Roared,” The New York Times, July 31, 2015, www.nytimes.com; “Employees Just Bought a Tesla for their CEO Because He Raised Minimum Salaries to $70,000,” Business Insider, July 14, 2016, www.businessinsider.com; and, “Does a $70,000 Minimum Wage Work?” USA Today, May 26, 2016, www.usatoday.com.Best practices for discussion posts – review the rubric, remember discussions require at least 2 external references (in addition to your textbook) be used in your posts, and at least 1 reference in your responses. All references should be in APA 7th edition formatting and using in-text citation. I recommend using the Daniel A. Cannon Online Library to search for additional resources for assignments.v