CEO: State Puts Big Burden on Businesses

Los Angeles - Paige Craig, the CEO of Betterworks -- a company that offers employers a way to reward employees with personalized perks -- has invested in dozens of start-up tech companies and coined the term, "Silicon Beach." He says he wants the state to give him and others a reason to stay in California as these companies grow.

Paige Craig
"Silicon Beach immediately tells you, 'Wow, I wanna go live there. There's tech and there's a beach?' That's L.A...... SoCal with my three years here offers the best quality of life I've seen in the U.S.

"When I came three years ago, this was a really early tech scene. We're now at a point where literally have 1,000s of tech companies, and as these companies grow, they have to make a decision.

"I'm still thinking about leaving as we grow. California labor laws... it's a whole bag of worms I'm looking at. It's much easier to take my inside sales team and my customer support team and put them in Vegas.

"We pay great wages here. These are living wages, and yet California is telling me we have to pay hourly and it's not that we don't care. It's a burden. I now have to have a management team that sits every day, 'When did you go on your smoke break? When was your lunch break?' Really? Can I just focus on building my company and not filling out Excel spreadsheets?

"I'm willing to stay here and pay the extra taxes, and pay the salaries to have a quality of life, but make it easier for me to pay my people. Don't put a huge tax burden on me. Don't put a huge legal burden on me. Make it easy for me to build my company here, and I'll stay here."