Tinkering with free market business principles has come back to haunt a young Seattle CEO, just as the city itself is also finding that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour has consequences.

Enter Dan Price, 31, CEO of Gravity Payments, a credit card processing firm. In April, Price was lauded across America for cutting his $1 million salary and using it to boost the salaries of his 120 employees to a minimum of $70,000. Why did Price decide to take such a drastic risk in the running of his business? Why, he read a research article on happiness!

Dan Price suddenly became the CEO the nation actually loved. He drew the attention of talk show hosts, Harvard business professors, and single women. And, of course, job seekers. Everyone wanted to work for Gravity Payments.

Now he’s renting out his house to make ends meet.

So what happened?