The Seattle CEO Who Cuts His Pay Until Workers Take $70,000 Resignations

Seattle (AFP) – The CEO of Seattle, who announced in 2015 that he would offer himself a drastic pay cut to help cover the cost of his employees’ big increases, has resigned.

The Seattle Times reported that Dan Price, CEO of credit card processing company Gravity Payments, resigned on Wednesday.

Price stunned his 100-plus workers when he told them he would cut his nearly $1 million salary to $70,000 and use the company’s profits to ensure everyone there earns at least that much within three years.

“My number one priority is to have our employees work for the best company in the world, but my presence has become a distraction here,” Price wrote in a statement on Twitter. He founded the company 18 years ago.

“I also need to step down from these duties to focus full time on combating the false accusations against me,” he wrote. “I will not go anywhere.”

Earlier this year, Seattle prosecutors charged Price with misdemeanor assault and reckless driving. Prosecutors say Price attempted to forcibly kiss a woman. He pleaded not guilty in May. The case is still going.

Price, 38, also faced other legal problems. His brother Lucas sued him in 2015, claiming that Dan Price was overpaying himself. A King County judge ruled that Dunn did not infringe on Lucas’ rights as a minority shareholder.

Allegations that Price abused his ex-wife Kristi Colon also surfaced that year. An October 2015 Bloomberg report recounted a TEDx talk given by Colon in which she described being beaten and waterboarded by her ex-husband, without naming Price. Bryce told Bloomberg that these events “never happened.”

Chief Operating Officer Tammy Kroll will take over as CEO.