MESA, AZ(3TV/CBS 5) – Chase Mendell works customer service at Autoline Industries, a company that makes aftermarket car parts. Mendell says he just found out his paycheck would be paid in bitcoin. “I was like, I immediately wanted to jump on that.”
Mendell will have a portion of his paycheck put into his bitcoin wallet, something the company is helping employees set up. “It’s almost like a future investment. Like, rather than buying a stock and your money is all tied up in that stock and you can’t really spend it unless you sell it. But you can be constantly making money on your bitcoin and spend it anywhere that accepts it, you still have that money readily available, ” said Mendell.
Autoline says it is trying to come up with ways to attract top talent and hopes this is a perk that will bring them in. “We are a fairly small company so we don’t have the same benefits as some of the larger companies out there. We are competing with people like Honeywell and those bigger industries,” said Jennifer Tillman, the marketing and sales manager at Autoline.
Right now, one bitcoin is worth around $54,000. Just six months ago it was worth $10,000. “One bitcoin could actually be fractional, like up to 10 different zeroes, so you can get point-zero-zero-four-three bitcoin and it’s worth X amount of US dollars, because it is constantly changing; going up and down,” said Mendell.
If bitcoin continues its upward trend, the thought is that employees could double or even triple their salaries. “So far a lot of them are excited about it. I am actually surprised by how many,” said Tillman.
It could be a chunk of extra change for a house, or maybe retirement, but there is one thing Mendell values most about the new opportunity. “I just like the freedom of it,” he said.