Why one CEO is paying for college for his workers' kids

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-one-ceo-is-paying-for-college-for-his-workers-kids/

ByAimee Picchi MoneyWatch May 28, 2015

For Boxed chief executive Chieh Huang, a nearly empty parking lot at his company's Atlanta warehouse prompted some soul-searching.

"I noticed there weren't a lot of cars in the warehouse parking lot," Huang told CBS MoneyWatch. "I thought they were on lunch break, but they were at full shift. A lot of folks, I realized, just couldn't afford cars."

That prompted Huang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, to think about how his e-commerce startup could help his employees' families climb the socioeconomic ladder, while also inspiring loyalty and commitment among workers.

He drew on his own experiences, noting that his mother, who worked as a cashier at a Chinese restaurant in Baltimore across the street from Johns Hopkins University, had expressed the wish that one day her grandchildren would attend the school. But Huang himself ended up attending and graduating from the university, thanks to his family's ability to piece together financial coverage.

"I thought, 'What was it that created the upward mobility in my family, especially when my parents first came to this country?' That enabler was access to higher education," Huang said. "The thing is, if you can't afford a car, how are you ever going to afford post-secondary school? That got me thinking that we are building a long-term business here, and we need to reinvest back into the folks who are committed to us."

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Workers at Boxed's warehouses make far more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, with pay ranging between $13 to $17 an hour, according to Boxed spokesman David Taft.

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"What I realize is that even as a CEO I'm absolutely nothing" without his employees, Huang noted. "How many boxes can I pack by myself? How many marketing campaigns can I make by myself?" He noted that he hopes the college plan will make his workers realize how important they are to him and the company.

Asked if he had heard of Gravity CEO Dan Price, who cut his own $1 million annual salary to $70,000 and raised all of his employees' pay to the same amount, Huang said he heard of that effort after he announced his own college plan. He noted that he couldn't cut his own salary given that he had skipped a salary for the last two years.

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