Payments Guy, Founder of Gravity Payments
Seattle, WA
- Tweets 17,902
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- Followers 546,507
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A male president was so angry he lost that he incited a mob against the U.S. Capitol.
I never want to hear again that women would be "too emotional" to be president.
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Uber Eats just spent $5.5 million plus whatever it cost to get Cardi B, Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey to tell us to "support local restaurants" while putting local restaurants out of business by charging them 30% delivery fees.
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I cut my CEO salary from $1.1M to $70k, mortgaged my house and gave up my stocks & savings so my employees could make more. My lifestyle changed dramatically but I'm happier now because it was the right thing to do.
Investing in your employees is WORTH IT
bbc.com/news/stories-5133281…
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"Europeans live longer because of olive oil, red wine and nuts"
Also they can go to the doctor any time they want and not go bankrupt
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Millennials hold 4.8% of all wealth. There are now 40-year-old Millennials.
At the same age, Gen X had 9% of wealth. Boomers had 21%
The largest generation in history did what the system told them to do and became the most-educated in history. Now they're the poorest in history
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Just to recap: a billionaire is getting free publicly-funded health care so he can stay on the job and sue to block low-income people from getting publicly-funded health care paid for by billionaires.
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Stop saying "money doesn't buy happiness."
A person making $100k won't be happier getting to $110k.
But lifting someone out of poverty is the most effective anti-depressant in the world.
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6 years ago today I raised my company's min wage to $70k. Fox News called me a socialist whose employees would be on bread lines.
Since then our revenue tripled, we're a Harvard Business School case study & our employees had a 10x boom in homes bought.
Always invest in people.
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Guy Fieri has raised $21.5 million for unemployed restaurant workers, which means Guy Fieri has done more for unemployed restaurant workers than Congress has in the last 8 months.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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Let me get this straight: To raise your credit score and prove you're "financially responsible," you have to buy stuff on a credit card with 19% interest?
But pay your $2,000 rent on time every month and your credit score doesn't change?
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Can someone explain to me how a billionaire paying $0 in taxes is "smart" but a laid-off worker getting their unemployment insurance benefits is "leeching off the system?"
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AriZona Iced Tea has stayed 99 cents for 30 years. The company is still profitable.
A Coke stayed 5 cents for 70 years at one point.
When companies say "we're forced to raise prices due to inflation," they're really saying "we're taking advantage of inflation to raise profits"
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The lottery is the only time a regular person can become a billionaire and the only time a billionaire will pay the legal tax rate.
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A reality show where every member of Congress has all their pay and assets frozen, their taxpayer-funded health care taken away and we give them $600 to live on
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My company pays an $80k min wage, lets people work wherever they want, has full benefits, paid parental leave, etc.
We get over 300 applicants per job.
"No one wants to work" is a hell of a way of saying "companies won't pay workers a fair wage and treat them with respect."
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When I started a $70k minimum wage for my company in 2015, Rush Limbaugh said: "I hope this company is a case study in MBA programs on how socialism does not work, because it's gonna fail"
Since then our company tripled & we're a successful case study at Harvard Business School.
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Denver gave homeless people $1,000 a month, no strings attached. A year later:
*45% secured housing
*Taxpayers saved $590k because of fewer visits to the hospital, jail and shelters
*People used the money on groceries, rent, hygiene, clothes and transportation
*Mental health improved and they could spend more time with their kids and grandkids
Amazing what happens when you give people a chance
Community note
The 45% figure is an average of all trial groups, not just the 1k/mo. The group that received only $50/month saw 43% find housing.
denverbasicincomeproject.org/researc
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It's always "$600 checks two years ago and 50-cent raises for workers are causing inflation"
and never "$3 trillion from the Fed to bail out the stock market, $1 trillion in annual corporate stock buybacks and a 1,322% rise in CEO pay since 1978 are causing inflation"
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Overdraft fees did not exist until the 1990s.
Now, banks make $8 billion a year in overdraft fees.
The CEO of one lender even named his yacht "Overdraft."
It is very expensive to be poor, and easy to stay rich.
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So a $700 billion bailout for the banks, an $80 billion bailout for the auto industry, a $50 billion bailout for the airlines and a $3 trillion Fed bailout for the stock market are all "capitalism" but unemployment checks are "socialism?"
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Sending your employees back to the office when gas, food, child care, pet care, etc are all through the roof - and not giving them a raise - after they spent 2 years doing the job just as well from home is a great way to tell your employees you don't care about them
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We got 800 applications for a customer service job opening in the last few days.
We pay a living wage ($70k+), full benefits, 401(k), paid parental leave, let people work where they want.
There's no labor shortage. There's a shortage of jobs treating people with basic respect.
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We asked our employees where they want to work:
7% want to go to the office full time
31% want an office-remote hybrid
62% want to work only from home
So I told them: sounds great. Do whatever you want. As a CEO, what do I care? If you get your work done, that's all that matters
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anyone ever stop to think maybe the problem isn't gas prices going up 50 cents but the fact that 50 cents is making people broke
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it's always "freeloading workers need to give up their $300 unemployment checks" and never "freeloading corporations need to give up their $1.9 trillion in tax breaks"
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When we doubled our minimum wage to $70k, the rate of staff having babies and buying houses both grew 10x. All of a sudden people could afford to have families.
To our senators who say they're pro-family: There's nothing more pro-family than a higher minimum wage.
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Weird how $300/week in unemployment is a "handout" but $1.9 trillion in tax cuts, $800 billion in PPP and trillions to prop up the stock market is a "stimulus"
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Chipotle has closed the first store where employees tried to unionize.
Last year Chipotle gave its CEO a $24 million raise and paid him 2,898x more than their median employee. Then the company raised prices and blamed employee pay (the average worker makes $13,100).
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if corporations are "forced to raise prices" because of inflation how come they weren't forced to lower prices when they got $1.9 trillion in tax cuts?
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Apparently a lot of bosses need to hear this:
If you're giving out a 5% annual raise right now, you're giving out a pay cut.
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"People in Europe live longer because of their Mediterranean diet"
*they can also get medical care without going bankrupt
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Think GameStop is wild? Wait 'til you see what the financial industry did to retirement accounts for teachers, nurses, police, firefighters and factory workers in 2008.
Their punishment? 0 jail time, big bailout, and a huge new revenue stream: cheap houses to buy and rent out.
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5 years ago I cut my CEO pay from $1.1M to $70k so I could pay all my employees at least $70k.
That's not good enough anymore.
Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.
It's not much but it's what I can do. We'll get through this together.
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Exxon Mobil: highest profit in 7 years
Chevron: highest profit in 7 years
Shell: highest profit in 7 years
BP: highest profit in 8 years
Gas prices: highest in 7 years
guess it's just that inflation
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How come it's always "if you can't pay your bills, get a better job" but never "if you can't find workers, pay a better salary"
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To give you a sense of how 2021 is going
More Americans died from covid in the last 3 days than on 9/11, the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war combined, and that's not even a top 10 news story right now.
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"how are we gonna pay for health care"
we already fuckign pay for it i just want the money to pay for health care not an insurance executive's third mansion
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If you think Russia sentencing Brittney Griner to prison for cannabis is wild, wait until you hear about the U.S. prison system
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The airlines got a $50 billion bailout and then laid off 90,000 people.
If someone can explain to me why we could only afford to give people $1,200 of their tax dollars back, I'd love to hear it. Because that was 8 months ago and it amounts to $4.83 a day at this point.
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If you can't find workers because they'd making more on unemployment than at your company, the problem isn't unemployment.
The problem is your poverty wages.
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Suspicious how everyone blames the rising cost of a burrito on workers getting a $1 raise but not the fact that CEO pay has gone up 1,322% in the last 43 years.
Last year Chipotle gave its CEO a $24 million raise and paid him 2,898x more than their median employee.
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We're seeing now exactly why every big company is fighting against universal health care.
Decouple health insurance from work and people are free to quit their bad jobs.
If people quit their bad jobs, companies will have to pay living wages to attract workers.
Can't have that.
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"I don't want $15 minimum wage because it'll be too close to what I make"
"I don't want $600 a week unemployment for others because I make that and I'm working"
Your company loves that you focus on others making more, and not how they are paying you too little.
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bizarre how workers quitting for higher wages are called "disloyal" but companies laying off workers for higher profits are called "good business people"
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Restaurant workers had a min wage of $2.13 plus tips in 1991.
Restaurant workers have a min wage of $2.13 plus tips today.
In 1991, average rent was $600 a month. Now it's $1,600.
I don't know, but this might be part of the explanation for why restaurants can't find workers.
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I'm no economics professor, but if food banks are rationing food because of record demand while billionaires gained a record $1 trillion in combined wealth, it might be time to reconsider our system.
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Just to recap: Congress members who get $174k a year in publicly-funded pay, publicly-funded health care, publicly-funded pensions, publicly-funded travel, and unlimited publicly-funded vacation and sick time think $300 a week for unemployment is "too socialist."
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If you're not giving your employees a 10% raise right now, you're giving them a pay cut.
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The bar is so low.
People are asking for a "living" wage.
Not a thriving wage, or even a satisfactory wage, just literally enough to live.
People ask "can I live?" and the response is "we'd rather have higher profits." In fact, the rich live 15 years longer than the poor.
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The Gulf of Mexico is on fire, it's 112 degrees in Portland, roads and rails are crumbling from the sun, wildfire and hurricane season are here in record time and people are concerned about the cost of going green.
COMPARED TO WHAT?
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*Stock market hits record highs at a time of record lines for food banks*
"well, the rich just know how to invest"
*Regular people game the same system through GameStop*
"we must stop this immediately"
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It took the Senate 38 days after a Supreme Court justice's death to replace her.
It's been 215 days since the Senate approved a stimulus bill that gave us $1,200. They've had us survive on $5.58 a day.
In case there was any doubt left about where the priorities are.
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Min wage
Costco: $16
Walmart: $11
Average pay
Costco: $24
Walmart: $15
Employees on food stamps (subsidized by you)
Costco: Virtually none
Walmart: More than any other company
Founder net worth
Costco: not a billionaire
Walmart: $220+ billion; up $30 billion in the pandemic
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A mixed-race family got their home appraised for $330k, way below the local average
For a 2nd appraisal, they removed all black family photos/culture items & had only the white dad home. The appraisal: $465k
Black-owned homes are devalued 23% on average
nytimes.com/2020/08/25/reale…
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Half of employees who make under $15 an hour get food stamps, Medicaid and welfare. This costs taxpayers $107 billion a year.
So instead of paying a few cents more for a hamburger, you're paying billions more to subsidize corporations paying literal poverty wages.
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Before the pandemic, there was 1 person worth $100 billion. Now there are 10.
Before the pandemic, those 10 people were worth $650 billion. Now they are worth $1.4 trillion.
And the Senate is ready to shut down the government and deny vital services to avoid taxing them at all.
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Dick's burgers in Seattle just upped its minimum wage to $19. It gives workers free health care, 3 weeks paid vacation, 50% 401(k) match and $9,000 for tuition/childcare.
Its basic burger costs $1.80.
But I was told that paying people a living wage would make burgers cost $20?
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"why don't young people love capitalism"
Millennials' entire careers:
2007-2010: "once in a lifetime" recession
2011-2019: pay stayed the same + all costs went up. Built average $8,000 net worth - 34% less than prior generations at same age
2020: "once in a lifetime" recession
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Just to recap: We spend $750 billion a year on the Military to "bring democracy" to other countries but we can't pass a bill to make it easier for Americans to vote here.
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How come when banks, car companies and airlines collapse they get a bailout, but when people's bank accounts collapse they get an overdraft fee?
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when you run out of money, the bank charges a $35 overdraft fee
when the bank runs out of money, they get a taxpayer bailout financed by you
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Remember kids: if you study hard, get good grades, go to a good college, get a job, work hard, never take a sick day, live within your means and do what you're told ... then one day your boss might go to space
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Our company pays a min wage of $70k and has paid parental leave, full benefits, paid time off, and allows people to work remotely.
We received 25,400 applications this year for 72 jobs.
There's no labor shortage. There's a shortage of jobs that treat people with respect.
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Amazon: profit up 100%
Walmart: profit up 80%
Target: profit up 80%
Lowe's: profit up 74%
Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Google: stock at record high
Small businesses: 21% closed; revenue for rest down 30%
We're seeing a monumental wealth transfer from mom & pops to conglomerates.
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So to recap we told people to stay home for the last 325 days and gave them $1,800. That's $5.54 a day.
Meanwhile, they pumped about $3 trillion in to the stock market for corporations, which then turned around and did record layoffs anyway.
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If trickle-down economics worked, we wouldn’t see a record $1 trillion in wealth gains for billionaires at the same time as record wait times at food banks.
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I'm CEO of a company that went remote 18 months ago.
Since then we hit record revenue and head-count, with 300+ applicants per job opening.
We stayed remote because our employees said they wanted to.
Productivity doesn't come from pizza parties. It comes from happy employees.
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Typical Millennial bank statement
$4 coffee
$8 lunch
$4 coffee
$2,000 for rent
$15 Lyft ride
$12 for Netflix
$9 lunch
$4 coffee
$8,000 bill from doctor
$20 at brunch
$400 student loan payment
The problem is obvious. By making lunch at home this person could have saved $3.
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Barrel of oil
Week ago: $128
Now: $99
Gallon of gas
Week ago: $4.17
Now: $4.32
Oil company profits are at 7-year highs, they get $180 billion a year in government subsidies and they're issuing $88 billion in buybacks/dividends this year.
Do the math.
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"how are we gonna pay for universal health care?"
We already pay for it. Just use the $10,000 a year we spend on premiums + copays and cut out health care companies' $40 billion in annual profits.
Put our money toward toward health care, not a health insurance exec's 3rd yacht.
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End all unpaid internships. If you can't afford to pay your workers, you don't deserve their work.
-a CEO
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Billionaires have almost a third of America's wealth.
If you got a $1,400 stimulus every day and never spent it, you'd have a billion dollars in the year 3978.
But the billionaires pay a lower tax rate than the people getting the stimulus checks.
Make it make sense.
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It's wild how many companies have experienced record profits, but still never have enough money to pay employees properly.
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there's always some story like "people are suffering because milk went up 5 cents" and never "we have to budget for milk because our rent went up $500, our health care is $10,000/year, my kids' college fund requires $100k and every house in our budget is now $100k more expensive"
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"i would kill for $15 an hour when I was your age!"
$15 in 1980 = $57 an hour today
$15 in 1990 = $35 an hour today
$15 in 2012 (when the fight for $15 wage began) = $20 an hour today
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Sorry to break it to you, but if your job ad requires experience, that's not an "entry-level" job.
It's a regular job that is trying to exploit experienced workers for entry-level pay.
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if you're not giving your employees a pay raise beyond inflation/cost of living growth, you're giving them a pay cut.
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"how are we gonna pay for universal health care?"
We already pay for it. Just use the $10,000 a year we spend on premiums + copays and cut out health care companies' $40 billion in annual profits.
Put our money toward toward health care, not a health insurance exec's 3rd yacht.
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1. A small business began selling camera tripods on Amazon
2. It reached $3.5 million in sales, 0.001% of Amazon's revenue
3. Amazon copied the tripods exactly and sold them as AmazonBasics tripods
4. Amazon banned the tripod company from Amazon
wsj.com/articles/amazon-comp…
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if you think a billionaire buying twitter is bad, wait until you hear about every TV station, newspaper, telecommunications company, computer and phone maker, social media site, Twitter's original and current ownership, and literally every other big company
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Let me see if I have this right:
We couldn't afford $2,000 checks because we spend $740 billion a year on Defense, yet we won't defend our own U.S. Capitol against domestic terrorists.
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"millennials" didn't kill your industry
a system that starts young people an average $30k in debt, pays them less than prior generations and prevents them from acquiring any wealth killed your industry
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To recap
1. Airlines spent 96% of free cash on stock buybacks for a decade
2. They got a $50 billion bailout & cut 90,000 jobs anyway
3. They returned to billions in profits, paid back $0 to taxpayers & raised ticket prices 16%
4. They canceled the 2nd-most flights ever this year
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If we get universal health care and my taxes end up going for other people's health care ...
I won't care at all because my premiums already pay even more for other people's health care plus a insurance executive's yacht.
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You know what would really help me as a business owner? Universal health care.
The money we pay to subsidize employee health care is astronomical and grows every year. I'll happily pay higher taxes to cut out health insurance companies that make $40 billion a year in profit.
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So $1.9 trillion in tax cuts for the rich and corporations is "the free market" but $1.9 trillion in student debt cancellation is "socialism?"
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If you're gonna force people back to the office for a job that could be done from home just as well, you should have to pay for their commute. pretty simple
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If your employer hasn't increased your pay by at least 16% since the beginning of 2020, you got a pay cut.
If you got a 17% raise, it's really a 1% raise at this point.
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"I suffered, therefore you must suffer, too" is such an odd mindset to carry through life.
I hear it all the time when people defend unpaid internships, awful entry-level jobs, student debt, etc.
Whatever happened to wanting the next generation to have it better than you did?
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Attention CEOs:
I'm one of you. In 2015 I made 33x more than our lowest-paid employee.
I took a big pay cut & raised our minimum wage to $70k. Now our top exec makes 4x more than our lowest-paid employee.
In that span, our business tripled. Amazing what happy employees can do.
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"China" didn't take your job
Some CEO making $30 million a year moved your job to China and used the savings to get to $40 million a year.
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The House just passed a record-high $840 billion Military budget, the same amount as all the stimulus checks combined.
Huh, guess when they print money for people it's "socialist," but when they do it for Military contractors it's "bipartisan."
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New York is canceling late fees for library books.
After Chicago did that:
*83% increase in books returned
*11,000 people got their library card back
*7% growth in books checked out
*Lost $900k in fees - 0.009% of city budget
Amazing what happens when you decriminalize poverty.
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Cost of Ozempic per month
Denmark: $186
Germany: $137
UK: $92
United States: $1,300
Same drug but only one country is like "sure just charge whatever you want."
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