One Company’s New Minimum Wage: $70,000 a Year
His idea bubbled into reality on Monday afternoon, when Mr. Price surprised his 120-person staff by announcing that he planned over the next three years to raise the salary of even the lowest-paid clerk, customer service representative and salesman to a minimum of $70,000.
“Is anyone else freaking out right now?” Mr. Price asked after the clapping and whooping died down into a few moments of stunned silence. “I’m kind of freaking out.”
If it’s a publicity stunt, it’s a costly one. Mr. Price, who started the Seattle-based credit-card payment processing firm in 2004 at the age of 19, said 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 this year.
SEIU Rolls Out Astroturf at McDonalds
Fast food protests will begin Wednesday
“Many Americans may not realize the extent to which the SEIU has [invested] and propagated the Fight for 15 campaign,” Williams said during a Monday teleconference. “The union has invested upwards of $20 million in 2014, $50 million over the last two years in this ongoing effort of organizing fast food workers. This is a coordinated effort, an effort based on street theater.”
The union’s federal labor filings released in March showed that the SEIU spent nearly $4 million on the Fast Food Workers Organizing Committee in 2014, more than double its 2013 spending. It also pumped money into regional organizing committees, which are expected to serve as point-men to eventually organize workers. The East Bay Organizing Committee, for example, saw its SEIU allocations balloon to more than $1 million in 2014, triple the $300,000 it received in 2013.
The SEIU did not return a request for comment.
Glenn Spencer, vice president at the Chamber of Commerce’s Workforce Freedom Initiative, said that the majority of attendees are professional protesters and union agitators, rather than actual fast food employees.
“The protests aren’t about wages or working conditions, they are about promoting the SEIU’s campaign to unionize the fast food industry,” Spencer said in a release. “Yet after investing two years … in these PR stunts, the SEIU still struggles to find actual employees to participate, let alone express an interest in joining a union.”
The SEIU shells out big money to lucrative public relations firms to generate the good press of the “grassroots movement.” It spent $1.3 million on the services of liberal media relations giant Berlin Rosen in 2014, a 60 percent jump from its 2013 expenses.
His idea bubbled into reality on Monday afternoon, when Mr. Price surprised his 120-person staff by announcing that he planned over the next three years to raise the salary of even the lowest-paid clerk, customer service representative and salesman to a minimum of $70,000.
“Is anyone else freaking out right now?” Mr. Price asked after the clapping and whooping died down into a few moments of stunned silence. “I’m kind of freaking out.”
If it’s a publicity stunt, it’s a costly one. Mr. Price, who started the Seattle-based credit-card payment processing firm in 2004 at the age of 19, said 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 this year.
SEIU Rolls Out Astroturf at McDonalds
Fast food protests will begin Wednesday
“Many Americans may not realize the extent to which the SEIU has [invested] and propagated the Fight for 15 campaign,” Williams said during a Monday teleconference. “The union has invested upwards of $20 million in 2014, $50 million over the last two years in this ongoing effort of organizing fast food workers. This is a coordinated effort, an effort based on street theater.”
The union’s federal labor filings released in March showed that the SEIU spent nearly $4 million on the Fast Food Workers Organizing Committee in 2014, more than double its 2013 spending. It also pumped money into regional organizing committees, which are expected to serve as point-men to eventually organize workers. The East Bay Organizing Committee, for example, saw its SEIU allocations balloon to more than $1 million in 2014, triple the $300,000 it received in 2013.
The SEIU did not return a request for comment.
Glenn Spencer, vice president at the Chamber of Commerce’s Workforce Freedom Initiative, said that the majority of attendees are professional protesters and union agitators, rather than actual fast food employees.
“The protests aren’t about wages or working conditions, they are about promoting the SEIU’s campaign to unionize the fast food industry,” Spencer said in a release. “Yet after investing two years … in these PR stunts, the SEIU still struggles to find actual employees to participate, let alone express an interest in joining a union.”
The SEIU shells out big money to lucrative public relations firms to generate the good press of the “grassroots movement.” It spent $1.3 million on the services of liberal media relations giant Berlin Rosen in 2014, a 60 percent jump from its 2013 expenses.
