Gravity Payments CEO, Dan Price, Surprises Pharmalogics CEO, Megan Driscoll:

After attending a talk in 2015 by Dan Price, the CEO of credit card processing company, Gravity Payments, who raised the minimum salary of all employees to $70,000, Megan Driscoll of Boston biotech recruiting firm, PharmaLogics, decided to do something similar. She bumped up her employees pay by 33 percent - from $37,500 to $50,000 a year.

Fast forward a year, and Dan Price surprised Driscoll and her team at their weekly in-office yoga session.
But, this story isn't about Dan Price or Megan Driscoll. Rather, it’s about a new wave of businesses from main street to Wall Street beginning to significantly increase wages for their employees. Early this month, Bank of America raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour, joining other Fortune 500'ers like Wells Fargo, Chase, Walmart, and more who have recently announced similar landmark plans. But, why is this happening?

For giants like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, their motivators could be public perception, peer pressure, perhaps morals. For SMBs like Gravity Payments and PharmaLogics, maybe it’s employee wellbeing, ROI, retention, and a differentiation in values. Whatever the reasoning, what unifies the Davids with the Goliaths is a clear groundswell that’s taking place - business is seeing a shift where purpose and people are more important than profit. It’s not business as usual anymore. It’s about doing business better.

With apprehension around our country's transition in leadership, it's important to remind ourselves of the changes that can happen independently. Major change isn't the sole domain of our President or legislators, rather change can be effected by individuals in our country.

This story is a testament of that.

To find out what happened after Price’s $70K decision (and to learn more about the Pharmalogics surprise), go to www.thegravityof70k.com.