Revisit Gravity Payment’s Experiment

I haven’t heard anything more about the outcome of Gravity Payment’s experiment of raising salaries to the minimum of $70,000 but Seth Godin did weigh in on what he thought is going on with the two best employees quitting because people were getting raises even if they didn’t earn it, or at least produce as much quality work as those who didn’t get as big a raise. In my post, I kind of called it a form of Schadenfreude. I thought they were sourpusses.

Seth Godin called it the “getting ahead” syndrome. If I can explain it right, this “getting ahead” syndrome means folks don’t feel like they are getting ahead unless others are falling behind. That doesn’t sound quite right.
Let’s try again. Let me quote him directly:

” One unspoken objection to raising the minimum wage is that people, other people, those people will get paid a little more. Which might make getting ahead a little harder. When we raise the bottom, the thinking goes, it gets harder to move to the top.”

It’s interesting to read his thinking on people who would quit just because we raise the wages for those at the bottom. I’m glad there is someone else out there who recognizes this is ugly behavior. Like I said in my prior post, we need to change our value system because this everyone out for himself is not good.

In the end he says:

“Life is more fun when you don’t compare.”

Ah, that is so true.

If you want to read what exactly he says about this topic, read here.