News

Gravity Payments Expanding $70,000 Minimum Wage to Idaho

Dan Price talking by Adele Peters, Fast Company - In 2015, Dan Price, the CEO of the Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments, told his employees that he was taking a million-dollar pay cut in order to raise the minimum wage at the company to $70,000. Five years later, he says that the policy has been a success—and the company is now in the process of adopting the same minimum wage at its second location in Boise, Idaho. The story behind the policy, which received a lot of publicity at the time, goes like this: Price originally decided to make the change after a hike with his friend, Valerie, who was struggling to pay her bills in Seattle, despite working 50-hour weeks and earning $40,000 a year, well over minimum wage.

Link to Article

For Remote Learning to Succeed, It Must Be Equitable

Color drawing of diverse womenby Reshma Saujani, EdSurge - For the past two months, Girls Who Code has been racing to design and deploy new virtual initiatives to serve thousands of girls around the world who rely on our programming. We had no choice. We needed to reach our girls. We couldn’t risk losing progress on closing the gender gap in tech. And we refused to let the COVID-19 pandemic stop us. The idea of a long-term shift toward virtual schooling fills me with dread and excitement at the same time. Free of brick-and-mortar constraints, virtual education presents an opportunity to reach more girls, including those in underserved and rural communities. But only if we innovate on issues of access.

Link to Article

How 'Athlete A' Could Change Olympic Gymnastics

Rachael Denhollander walking up to daisby Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times - Last summer, one of the biggest USA Gymnastics meets took place just a few miles from Rachael Denhollander’s home in Louisville, Ky. She badly wanted to take her daughters to the competition, especially because it was rumored that Olympian Simone Biles would unveil a triple-twisting double tuck — something no female gymnast had ever performed. But after everything she’d been through, Denhollander — a mother of four — felt it wasn’t right to expose her kids to the world of elite gymnastics.

Link to Article

Norman Lear Developing Series Based on Homeboy Industries Founder

Gregory Boyle hugging personby Michael Schneider, Variety - Act III Prods.’ Norman Lear and Brent Miller are looking to turn the story of Homeboy Industries founder Father Gregory Boyle into a single-camera half-hour series. Under their first look deal at Sony Pictures Television, Lear and Miller have optioned Boyle’s bestselling book “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.” Lear and Miller are eyeing it as a workplace drama-comedy based on the life and stories of the Jesuit priest. Lear and Miller will executive produce through Act III, while Chris Donahue and Seth Cohen are also executive producers. Fr. Boyle will receive a consulting producer credit. A search is underway to find a writer to adapt his book.

Link to Article

Brandon Copeland using time to teach “Life 101”

Brandon Copeland speakingby Darin Gantt, NBC Sports - Players don’t have offseason programs to worry about at the moment, or anything that was previously scheduled, really. But new Patriots linebacker Brandon Copeland wants to help his fellow players to keep improving while on coronavirus lockdown. Via Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post, the former Jet is hosting the first in a series of webinars for NFL players today, in which he discusses topics including time and financial management. Copeland, who teaches a class called “Life 101” at the University of Pennsylvania (where he graduated from the Wharton Business School), has worked with the NFLPA on the program, and also has been contacted by other sports unions to share his message. He’s had players approach him for business advice in the past, and sees this as a chance to spread his message to a broader audience.

Link to Article