Finneran: Hey Rush Limbaugh—MYOB!
Friday, April 24, 2015
Hey Rush—mind your own business!
Rush Limbaugh can be a very funny guy. Irreverent, witty and smart, Rush mocks certain public figures mercilessly. He’s not a fan of Democrats but he can aim his verbal guns at Republicans too. Just ask Bob Dole. Or George W. Bush.
Recently however he aimed and misfired at a private American citizen. Wrong target, wrong issue. He should mind his own business and spare us the lectures.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMeet Dan Price, the founder and CEO of Gravity Payments, a credit card processing company. He’s a young guy who has built his business on superior low-cost service. He employs about 120 people. Pretty impressive, right?
Recently Mr. Price announced his intention to raise his company’s minimum wage to $ 70,000 a year, relying on research which apparently demonstrates that money can, to a certain extent, buy happiness. Perhaps it’s more accurately stated that the absence of money can really throw someone into a tailspin, whether from a sudden rent increase, an expensive car repair, or an uninsured medical expense. Mr. Price, sensitive to the grimmer realities of his employees’ lives, decided to do something about it. Thus the announcement of the $ 70,000 minimum salary.
Enter Rush Limbaugh, who according to an article in the New York Times, denounced Mr. Price’s actions as “pure unadulterated socialism, which has never worked”. Huh? Mr. Price is a private American citizen, enjoying American freedoms. His company is his own. He founded it and he built it into a successful business. His decisions are his alone, be they astute or be they reckless. No government edict or regulation or bureaucrat forced Mr. Price to make his decision. He exercised his own free will and for that principle alone, the principle of American citizens exercising their own free wills rather than meekly and passively awaiting government direction, Mr. Price should be applauded. Limbaugh’s mockery of Mr. Price’s alleged “socialism” is all wet.
According to the Times, Limbaugh went even further saying that “I hope this company is a case study in MBA programs on how socialism does not work, because it is going to fail”. Once again, huh?
Anyone who has built a business which employs more than 100 people deserves some credibility and respect. And every American citizen, employer or employee, enjoys certain basic freedoms including the freedom to make their own economic decisions and the freedom to fail. Perhaps Mr. Price’s decision will prove to be a poor one. Maybe it will be unsustainable and thus a stupid decision. Rush Limbaugh thinks so. I’m not so sure.
Consider these facts: Mr. Price currently pays himself about one million dollars a year. He’s going to reduce that salary to about $ 70,000 a year. The company will earn a profit of about 2.2 million dollars this year. About 75% of that profit, along with Mr. Price’s salary reduction, will be used to raise the company’s minimum salary to the $ 70,000 figure mentioned above (the company’s average salary is now $ 48,000 a year). Mr. Price wants to steadily rebuild the company’s annual profits to the 2 million dollar range before he re-adjusts his own salary.
Part of the worth of any company is the quality and productivity of its employees. As Mr. Limbaugh no doubt seeks smart energetic and knowledgeable employees in his business, can he not see that Mr. Price probably seeks the same type of dependable industrious people? Every leader of every business seeks such employees.
And every leader seeks to attract talent, retain talent, reduce turnover, and build morale in their workforce. So who’s kidding whom here? Salaries matter. Skills matter. Workplace dynamics matter. Attitudes matter. Mission matters. And Mr. Price is truly putting his money where his mouth is, showing his employees his care, his concern and his appreciation of them. Might they not respond in kind, cheerfully and productively, showing their appreciation for a good job with a good company, going the extra mile to insure the company’s success?
Distracted, worried, sullen employees are not fully functional. Mr. Price recognizes that fact. He has analyzed his company’s finances and he’s putting his employees on an up escalator to a middle class comfort zone. It’s not a bribe, it’s a bet, a bet on people. Here’s hoping that the bet pays off.
Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.
Related Articles
- Finneran: Mothers and Christmas
- Finneran: Lord, For These Many Things I Am Grateful
- Finneran: Hope Comes Alive
- Finneran: Help Wanted, Help Needed, Now More Than Ever
- Finneran: On Sharpton, Kareem, and Uncle Toms
- Finneran: Gronk!
- Finneran: America The Beautiful…………..
- Tom Finneran: Gywneth and Eva: Two Hollywood Ninnies
- Tom Finneran: I’m Joe Citizen and I Disapprove These Messages
- Finneran: Too Old, Too White, Too Male To Understand….
- Finneran: President Obama—-Black and Blue and Badly Bruised
- Finneran: Unspeakably Rude, Unspeakably Vile
- Finneran: Oh How I Loved That Dog….
- Finneran: Stop Shooting Cops
- Finneran: Liking Lebron
- Finneran: Eight Items or Less
- Finneran: More Love, Less Judgement
- Finneran: Notes From My Gratitude Journal
- Finneran: MLK, LBJ and Savage Selma
- Finneran: Random Thoughts on Life’s Merry-Go-Round
- Finneran: When The Law is an Ass……
- Finneran: Tom Brady, Blessed By An Angel
- Finneran: Please Pass The Measles
- Finneran: Those Snow Drifts Hold Stories
- Finneran: Yesterday’s Over