The boss who put everyone on 70K

#1

Post by orjan » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 6:28 AM UTC

The boss who put everyone on 70K
bbc.com

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#2

Post by anonsivalley652 » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:16 AM UTC

Note: I heard this story around 2015-2016. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9371854

I'm not sure which is more applicable:

1. Hurray, decency.

2. Shouldn't getting excited about what would've been middle-class income 70 years ago be a sign how far workers' pay has fallen?

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#3

Post by cyberferret » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:20 AM UTC

Just to clarify - the article mentions that he put everyone in the company on a minimum salary of $70K. I would think that high level technical staff on $100K+ would have been more than a little upset to have their salary slashed. Junior staff members are the winners here!

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#4

Post by travbrack » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:21 AM UTC

anonsivalley652 wrote: post #2

Note: I heard this story around 2015-2016. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9371854 I'm not sure which is more applicable: 1. Hurray, decency. 2. Shouldn't getting excited about what would've been middle-class income 70 years ago be a sign how far workers' pay has fallen?

Huh? Inflation calculator says 70k in 1950 is worth 754k today.

Edit: I did the calculation backwards. Thanks to everyone who pointed that out.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#5

Post by bufferoverflow » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:23 AM UTC

This is very nice of the owner, but extremely inefficient economically. Which means most companies can't afford to do something like that. Only if your profit margins are huge.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#6

Post by eru » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:23 AM UTC

anonsivalley652 wrote: post #2

Note: I heard this story around 2015-2016. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9371854 I'm not sure which is more applicable: 1. Hurray, decency. 2. Shouldn't getting excited about what would've been middle-class income 70 years ago be a sign how far workers' pay has fallen?

Where do you get that 'middle-class income' from?

The standard of living that 70k USD buys today is vastly better than what the median income bought in 1950.

(Of course, Seattle is rather expensive. The 70k USD would go much further in a city that didn't restrict residential construction so much.)

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#7

Post by zelphirkalt » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:24 AM UTC

travbrack wrote: post #4

anonsivalley652 wrote: post #2

Note: I heard this story around 2015-2016. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9371854 I'm not sure which is more applicable: 1. Hurray, decency. 2. Shouldn't getting excited about what would've been middle-class income 70 years ago be a sign how far workers' pay has fallen?

Huh? Inflation calculator says 70k in 1950 is worth 754k today. Edit: I did the calculation backwards. Thanks to everyone who pointed that out.

You have it the wrong way around. You should calculate what historical wage would be 70k today.

GP is probably also relating to what you can buy using 70k.

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#8

Post by atlasunshrugged » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

I think it's important to mention some other sides of this story, namely that the raise came right around the time his brother filed a lawsuit for him overpaying himself and domestic abuse allegations. I don't remember the articles exactly but there were some rumors that this change was a PR stunt and shield for him

Some articles that talk about the other side:

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-gravity-ceo-dan-pric...

https://www.hundredeightydegrees.com/investigation/2018/2/27...

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#9

Post by opan » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

travbrack wrote: post #4

anonsivalley652 wrote: post #2

Note: I heard this story around 2015-2016. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9371854 I'm not sure which is more applicable: 1. Hurray, decency. 2. Shouldn't getting excited about what would've been middle-class income 70 years ago be a sign how far workers' pay has fallen?

Huh? Inflation calculator says 70k in 1950 is worth 754k today. Edit: I did the calculation backwards. Thanks to everyone who pointed that out.

Wouldn't you instead want to see what 70k today is equivalent to back then, then check how that pay compares to the average?

Re: The boss who put everyone on 70K

#10

Post by eru » Fri, Feb 28, 2020, 7:26 AM UTC

travbrack wrote: post #4

anonsivalley652 wrote: post #2

Note: I heard this story around 2015-2016. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9371854 I'm not sure which is more applicable: 1. Hurray, decency. 2. Shouldn't getting excited about what would've been middle-class income 70 years ago be a sign how far workers' pay has fallen?

Huh? Inflation calculator says 70k in 1950 is worth 754k today. Edit: I did the calculation backwards. Thanks to everyone who pointed that out.

I think you'd need to do the opposite: take 70k today, and figure out what the inflation calculator suggests about it's value in 1950 dollars. Just using your numbers, that would be about 6.5k.

Now compare with median annual incomes in 1950. Asking Google about '1950 median american income' gives 'Average family income in 1950 was $3,300.' Not quite what I wanted to know, but close enough. (We are looking at per worker income, and would probably be more interested in median than average.)