Call it a failed Socialist experiment

[Benton]

a— Not really a Socialist experiment. It's a business management experiment, namely, does increasing lower employee pay translate into upper level profits? It's an interesting idea, and one that would be interesting at a company where the CEO was a better guage of how much his company can afford in short-term expense.
b— Renting out his house and the lawsuit seem to be more about his brother and company co-founder settling a grudge. It was bad business on Price's part not to include a nest egg large enough to handle a rainy day, but that doesn't really have anything to do with the wage, which isn't up to $70k yet.
c— It hasn't really had much time to see if it worked or not, but...

Quote:The publicity surrounding the wage policy has generated benefits. Three months before the announcement, the firm had been adding 200 clients a month. In June, 350 signed up. That new business won’t start paying off for 12 to 18 months, however, Price said, and in the meantime, he is contending with the lawsuit brought by his brother. Lucas Price owns about 30 percent of their company, although he has not been involved in day-to-day operations for several years.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-company-copes-with-backlash-on-70000-minimum-wage/

d— Maybe we need a few more people to do the same before it starts to work. Also from the same link:

Quote:There have been other ripples. Mario Zahariev, who runs Pop’s Pizza & Pasta, switched to Gravity after seeing Price on the news. When he learned his monthly processing fees would drop to $900 from $1,700, Zahariev decided: “I was not going to keep the difference for myself.” He used the savings to raise the salaries of his eight employees.