Summary
The article, “The boss who put everyone on 70k,” is about Dan Price who is one of the founders of Gravity Payments, a card payment company in Seattle, United States of America. In 2015 Price introduced a $70000 minimum wage for the company’s employees. This was after he had gone hiking with a friend who complained about their rent increase and the “struggle to pay [their] bills” (para. 2). According to the article, Valerie, Price’s friend, “brought home to him that a lot of his staff must [also] be struggling” (para. 6). Because he was unhappy with world inequality levels, he decided to raise the company’s minimum wage to an amount he thought would be satisfactory. He concluded that this amount would be $70000 after studying economists’ theories on how much earnings would make employees happy. In order to raise the wages, he sacrificed by “slash[ing] his salary, mortgaging his two houses and giv[ing] up his stocks and savings” (para. 13). When Price made the decision to increase wages, he had hoped that other companies in the US would follow suit. Although this did not happen, the article points out that he remains happy because his employees have shown increased productivity, settled off debts, purchased property and have proven to be less-stressed over the years (para. 26; 20; 18; 31).
Explanation
Price’s story is an example of the self-concept, defined as the overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes. It includes several aspects, such as the self-awareness theory, functions of the self, motivation, as well as cultural influence. However, morality, which is the set of principles that govern good and bad behavior is viewed as the central aspect to the self-concept. The aspect of morality is reflected in Price’s decision to increase wages because the reason behind his decision was the need to do the right thing, and help struggling employees.
The article points out that Price is openly against global income inequality, and this is another reason for his decision. How this relates to morality is that inequality is viewed as a byproduct of labor exploitation, and therefore should be curbed. By raising wages, Price was taking action against immorality in the economic system of the United States.
The author of the article also highlighted that Price is Christian by religion. This information is relevant because Christianity encourages generosity and doing good by other people, which goes in line with good morals. According to Prince, society “glorifies greed,” and he therefore chooses to show generosity instead (para. 9).
Another way in which raising employees’ wages was an act of morality is the fact that it required sacrifice of personal benefits. Price chose to give up his personal assets and settle for a lifestyle that costs less in order to cover the company’s rising costs. In my opinion, such an act demonstrates the internal value of doing right by other people even when the decision maker is left worse off. In the private business sector, the main objective is to be profitable, and yet Price was more concerned with the happiness of his employees than profit-making, an act that can be viewed to be morally-driven.
Price’s decision to raise the company’s wages to $70000, and action to give up his assets reflect his behavior as a result of his sense of self. Although the sense of self is made up of various aspects, morality remains central, meaning that his decision making process was driven by the need to do what was right by sacrificing personal benefits for the benefit of other people.
Reference
Hegarty, Stephanie. “The boss who put everyone on 70K.” BBC News, https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51332811. Accessed on 07 March 2020.