A C.E.O. in the United States has delighted his employees by announcing he will raise the minimum wage at Gravity Payments to $70,000 (€65,700).

Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Payments, made the decision after reading an article about happiness, The New York Times reports. The authors claimed people earning less than $75,000 would be significantly happier with more money, but beyond that point the connection between extra happiness and extra money is far weaker.

Price surprised his staff of 120 with the news, telling them that over the next three years everyone from clerks to customer services would be earning at least $70,000 per year.

“Is anyone else freaking out right now?” Price asked his employees as he made the announcement. “I’m kind of freaking out,” he said.

Ultimately the move will see roughly 70 employees earning more, with 30 doubling their salary. The average salary at the company is currently $48,000.

Price, who founded Gravity Payments in his college dorm room at just 19 years old, was not just inspired by the article on happiness, but also troubled by the increasingly massive pay gap between regular workers and C.E.Os in the United States. With one of the world’s largest pay gaps, C.E.O.s earn roughly 300 times the average wage.

“The market rate for me as a C.E.O. compared to a regular person is ridiculous, it’s absurd,” Price said.

Price told the New York Times that many of his friends, even those earning far above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, were still struggling to get by today.

“I hear that every single week. That just eats at me inside,” he said.

Price plans to pay for the salary increases by lowering his own salary to $70,000 per year (down from about $1m), while also using some of the company’s anticipated profits of $2.2m this year.