What happened to that guy who gave everyone a $70,000 raise? You probably remember the viral clips. Dan Price, the long-haired, charismatic CEO of Gravity Payments, standing in front of his cheering staff in 2015, announcing he was slashing his own million-dollar salary to fund a new company minimum wage. It was the "feel-good" story of the decade. Conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh predicted the company would end up on bread lines, while progressive activists hailed Price as the messiah of modern labor.
Honestly, the truth is much messier than a three-minute news segment.
Fast forward to 2026. Gravity Payments is still here, but Dan Price isn't the one running the show anymore. After years of being the poster child for "conscious-capitalism," Price’s public image imploded under the weight of serious legal allegations and internal friction. If you’ve only followed the headlines from 2015, you’ve missed a wild, multi-year saga involving lawsuits, secret recordings, and a dramatic resignation that shifted the company’s entire trajectory.
✨ Don't miss: Dow Jones Daily Closing: Why These Numbers Still Rule Your Portfolio
The $70k Experiment: Did It Actually Work?
Let's address the elephant in the room. Critics were certain the $70,000 minimum wage would bankrupt the company. They were wrong.
By most traditional business metrics, the move was a massive success. Between 2015 and 2021, Gravity Payments saw its revenue triple. The headcount doubled. Employee turnover dropped by half. Workers started having babies at a higher rate and buying houses in one of the most expensive cities in America. In 2024, the company even updated its blog to reflect on the ten-year anniversary of the decision, noting that they had remained profitable every single year since the change.
But there was a darker side to the "socialist CEO" narrative. While the world saw a hero, some employees saw a man obsessed with his own brand.
A 2022 investigation by The Seattle Times revealed that the internal culture wasn't always as rosy as the Instagram posts suggested. Some veteran employees felt the wage hike was unfair because it doubled the pay of entry-level staff while barely moving the needle for senior leads who had put in years of work. There were stories of Price being an unpredictable manager, sometimes using the company’s resources to polish his personal image rather than focus on credit card processing.
Basically, the company succeeded despite the drama, mostly because the underlying business model of serving small businesses was solid.
Why Dan Price Really Resigned
The downfall didn't happen because of the money. It happened because of the man.
In August 2022, Dan Price suddenly resigned as CEO of Gravity Payments. In his own words, his "presence had become a distraction." That was an understatement.
The resignation came on the heels of several legal battles:
- The Seattle Charges: In early 2022, Price was charged with misdemeanor assault and reckless driving. A woman alleged that after a dinner meeting, Price tried to forcibly kiss her in his car and grabbed her throat when she refused. He pleaded not guilty.
- The California Allegations: Shortly after his resignation, more serious allegations surfaced. In 2024, he was charged in Riverside County, California, with the rape of an unconscious victim following an incident in Palm Springs.
- The Resignation: Tammi Kroll, the company's long-time COO, took the reins as CEO. She’s been credited with stabilizing the ship while Price focused on his legal defense.
Here’s where it gets complicated: by May 2025, many of these charges were dropped. The Riverside County District Attorney’s office stated they were unable to pursue the rape charges "beyond a reasonable doubt" due to a lack of prosecutable evidence. The Seattle misdemeanor charges had also been dismissed earlier in 2023.
Price has consistently denied all allegations of abuse, claiming they were part of a coordinated effort to tear him down. However, the damage to his reputation as the "world's best boss" was largely permanent.
Gravity Payments in 2026: The New Normal
So, where does the company stand now?
Gravity Payments is effectively a post-founder company. Even though Price returned in an "advisory role" in mid-2024, Tammi Kroll remains the CEO. The company has shifted away from the "cult of personality" that defined it for a decade. They aren't making headlines for viral tweets anymore; they're making headlines for their actual financial products.
The $70,000 minimum wage (which has since been bumped to $80,000 for many roles) remains the standard. It proved that a company could pay a living wage in a high-cost city and stay profitable.
But the "Dan Price" brand is largely dead. The lesson for other business owners isn't just about the salary—it's about the danger of tying a company’s entire identity to a single, fallible human being.
What You Can Learn From the Gravity Story
If you're a business owner or a manager looking at the Dan Price Gravity Payments case study, don't just look at the payroll numbers. Look at the structure.
- Pay Equity Drives Retention: The data is clear. Paying people enough to cover their basic needs—and then some—massively reduces the cost of hiring and training new staff.
- Separate the Brand from the Founder: Gravity struggled because Dan Price was the brand. When he fell, the company’s reputation took a hit it didn't deserve. Building a brand based on values, rather than a person, is safer.
- Transparency is a Double-Edged Sword: Price was a master of transparency when it suited him, but less so when it came to internal grievances. True "conscious capitalism" requires a feedback loop that works both ways.
Moving Forward
If you are looking to implement a similar wage structure, start by auditing your "turnover cost." Most companies spend more on replacing unhappy employees than it would cost to simply pay them more. You don't need a $70k headline to make a difference; you just need a wage that reflects the cost of living in your specific zip code.
The Gravity Payments story is no longer a fairy tale. It's a complex business case about the power of fair pay and the fragility of public image. The company survived because the idea of fair wages was stronger than the man who proposed it.
Audit your current payroll against the local "happiness benchmark" (usually cited around $75,000 in major US cities) to see how far off your retention-critical roles are from financial stability.