Maybe you’ve heard of this insanely viral story of the company that decided to make the minimum salary for all workers $70,000?
Yep, everything in the building with a pulse gets at least 70 thousand buckaroos a year. I thought for sure that this CEO would be in the running for “Person of the Year” in 2015.
But could you have imagined that it would have caused many of the workers at this company to quit? I guess I could imagine that a few folks that worked their way up to say $75K, were more than a little angry that the inexperienced, recently hired, college grad received a huge windfall just for being in the right place at the right time.
But I bet you couldn’t comprehend that someone would voluntarily quit after getting a $20,000 pay increase as a result of this measure.
That is exactly what one, amazingly values-driven, web developer did when he got his salary increased from $50K to $70K (that’s a 40% raise you know) a year. To make a long story short (because it’s a pretty long, but interesting article), this web developer decided to walk away from it all because, as he put it, “Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me” and “It shackles high performers to less motivated team members.”
On the surface I thought, this guy is just plain loco. But when I removed my bias toward the “get all that you can get” mindset, it dawned on me that this guy was on to something. It’s not at all black and white. You see, on one hand, many of those that made significantly less than $70K
But what do you think? Personally, I think that those that made a little more than the new minimum would be de-motivated by this seemingly benevolent measure.
This one has me on the fence…
I would love to get your thoughts on this.
This story is proof that once again, salary matters.
– Steele
