Image via Gravity Payments
A CEO from Seattle, Dan Price, has resigned today from Gravity Payments. He garnered attention back in 2015 after he announced that he was giving himself a pay cut in order to help employees earn a minimum of $70,000.
Earlier this year, Seattle prosecutors charged Price with misdemeanor assault against a woman and reckless driving. Prosecutors say that he tried to forcibly kiss a woman. Price pleaded not guilty back in May, and the case is still ongoing.
In a statement on Twitter, Price wrote: “My No. 1 priority is for our employees to work for the best company in the world, but my presence has become a distraction here. I also need to step aside from these duties to focus full time on fighting false allegations made against me. I’m not going anywhere.”
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Dan Price founded Gravity Payments 18 years ago. He made headlines seven years ago after cutting his nearly $1 million salary to $70,000 to ensure that everyone at the company would be able to earn that much within three years. The average annual salary at Gravity Payments at the time was $48,000.
In 2016, Price said this about the move he made: “I’m so happy how people’s lives are changing, because they deserve it, and they deserve every penny of it. For me to make a sacrifice in the short term, I’d rather this than a vacation home in Palm Springs or the Hamptons. I guarantee that this will pay off.”
This isn’t the first time Price has found himself in legal troubles. Back in 2015, his brother, Lucas, sued him for allegedly overpaying himself and mismanaging the company. A judge in King County ruled that Dan had not violated Lucas’ rights as a minority shareholder.
In 2015 as well, there were allegations against Dan that he had abused his ex-wife, Kristie Colon. She described being beaten and waterboarded by her ex, but did not specify who. Dan told Bloomberg that those events “never happened,” but he had not been mentioned by Colon.
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