Dan Price said that he was stepping down to dedicate more time to “fighting false allegations.” Earlier this year, he was accused of attempting to kiss a woman against her will, the Seattle Times reported.
Price did not elaborate on the allegations or immediately respond to a request for comment. Gravity Payments did not immediately respond to a request for comment.A frequent critic of corporate executives and the vast pay gap between them and their workers, Price rose to fame in 2015 after announcing he wouldto at least $70,000. At that time, his 120 employees were paid an average salary of $48,000 a year, according to the Times.
On Twitter Price touted the success of his company’s model and the benefits afforded to employees. The minimum pay for workers is now $80,000, he said, and staff received a $10,000 baseline raise this year. Job openings typically attract more than 300 applicants, he said.The original salary floor was set the same year Price won a legal battle against his brother, Lucas Price.
Now 38, Price’s public persona is shaped around his advocacy for average workers and criticism of big business. He authored a 2020 book entitled “Worth It: How a Million-Dollar Pay Cut and a $70,000 Minimum Wage Revealed a Better Way of Doing Business.” That same year, he wrote a perspective piece for The Washington Post, championing his company’s treatment of workers as a model that allowed staff to decide how to confront the economic shocks during the early months of the pandemic.