“Over the weekend, The New York Times profiled Apple’s retail operations and controversially touched upon Apple’s retail employees,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac. “The profile put out a simple, yet controversial, statement about the wages given to those who act as ushers for turning people into new Apple customers and product advocates.”
About 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple employees in this country work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, and many of them earn about $25,000 a year. They work inside the world’s fastest growing industry, for the most valuable company, run by one of the country’s most richly compensated chief executives, Tim Cook. Last year, he received stock grants, which vest over a 10-year period, that at today’s share price would be worth more than $570 million. – David Segal, New York Times, June 23, 2012
Gurman reports, “The NYT goes on to say that each employee, while making an average of $25,000 a year, nets Apple approximately $473,000 per year. With the profile and the above statements in mind, we polled several current and some former Apple retail employees about their thoughts on the profile. We provided a few guiding questions that many of the employees used to compile their answers. Some employees defend the NYT’s article, and some completely disagree. The breakdown of feelings towards Apple Retail is interesting.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Why is the NYT so against Apple? Is it because Apple won’t advertise with them?
Have you ever considered that reporting can be objective and informative, or does anything that offends or disturbs your preconceived ideas the result of some conspiracy or carefully crafted propaganda?
This is the NYT we’re talking about. Get serious.
-jcr
Objective? The Mainstream Media? What are you smoking?
The New York Time is nothing but propaganda.. Pravda would be proud..
Are you seriously calling this manipulative, hypocritical peace a “objective and informative”?
This perpetual whining about your job and envious complaints at company profits is wearing thin.
If you don’t like your job, find a better one. If you can’t find a better job, the job you’ve got is the best you can get. Live with it.
If a company is making too much money, buy it’s stock and smile.
Think positively.
“If you don’t like your job, find a better one. If you can’t find a better job, the job you’ve got is the best you can get.”
Of course, another thing to consider is that your education or lack thereof may come into play. Get a higher education and start your own business. Or not.
Some very thoughtful responses from some very intelligent people. Given what was published here, i think Apple should be offering more of a career opportunity. It’s pretty tough in a Retail setting and not everyone is suited to management, but I think they should be paying much higher than simple retail wages. How else do you get and, more importantly, keep good employees?
An average engineer contributes over $4-5 million to Apple’s revenue that’s 10 times more than the retail store employee, but they are just paid about twice more. Shouldn’t NY Times write an article about that also.
I seriously believe that retail store employees should be paid more especially if they are college graduate. But I don’t think equating sales figures with employee salary is the right way, because those sales figures are a result of many more people working together and not just the sales person.
Somewhere along the line, the NY Times (and much of America) forgot what the term “free market” means. The free market decides what you should be paid, not you. If you think you are worth more than the job pays, the free market allows you to take your skills to another job where you can be better compensated. If no job will compensate you for your skills at the level you think you should be compensated at, then your expectations are unrealistic.
Why is that so difficult to understand?
i couldn’t agree more with you. You dont like where u work get another job. I’m sure a McDonalds somewhere is waiting for a future employee.
How can you take your skills somewhere else when the economy has no where else for you to work? The store I worked at had about 200 on staff and I would say the ratio of staff that had a college degree was about 65%. Not only that is it too much to ask for for a few dollars more on the hour in working there because they’ve added more responsibility to a shitty retail job.
I worked for Apple for 5 years and in that time I may have gotten a $2 raise over the same period that business and traffic at the store increase 10 times over. The real gripe that many of my former coworkers have is that they are getting compensated the same for doing more work than ever before. On top of that dealing with snobby entitled morons of customers that Apple has created. Try dealing with people that can’t remember their passwords and look at you like its your responsibility to baby them in its retrieval for things that are 7-8 timese out of 10 non apple related. Or dealing with irresponsible idiots that won’t accept that they broke or liquid damaged their device. It gets frustrating. Now imagine the traffic of that has increased and you’re being paid the same amount as before.
People are getting tired of that especially when every morning’s meeting before the store opens they talk about how much the store did in revenue the previous day, people start to wonder.
Unless you’ve been in that grueling type of environment, I don’t think you have any room to comment on their pay raise negatively, they deserved it.
Frustration is the name of the game in retail – wherever you work. Hours, pay, management, punters, workload…it’s all part of not being your own boss.
You, like most, found there is a time limit on every job in retail, for every company the world over.
But then being your own boss brings a whole different hatful of hurt which kills you daily just the same.
“I worked for Apple for 5 years and in that time I may have gotten a $2 raise over the same period that business and traffic at the store increase 10 times over. The real gripe that many of my former coworkers have is that they are getting compensated the same for doing more work than ever before.”
You think this is just an Apple issue? You just described almost every job in America. Stop whining.
La-la-la. Fantasies from the right wing bubble again. It is “difficult to understand” because we don’t live in a free market – and never have.
But really – even if we did… would you really want it? Look at history when there were little or no rules – or look at other countries where there is even less control over what the pathologically greedy do. Do you really want no controls – except these theoretical market forces – over what chemicals are put in your children’s food? Do you really want no regulations on the quality of the car you’re hurtling down the freeway in?
What is society FOR? So that the top 400 income earners in the US can have more money than the bottom 150 million. What reasonable society structure gives people more reward than they could spend if they lived if they lived for ten thousand lifetimes. Because STRUCTURE it is — it doesn’t just “happen” through “natural market forces”.
Let me put save time on your thoughtful reply… “shithead commie blah blah pinko socialist blah-blah fag libtard”
One problem is that some of the people defining this “free market” has apparently decided that only corporate management can decide what a person’s labor is worth. If people attempt to define their own level of worth – for instance, by organizing a union to give their opinion some teeth – they are somehow evil and unAmerican and the source of all existing economic problems. The thinking seems to go that if you eliminate all unions and regulations, the free market will evolve towards utopia and everyone will benefit. Then there are the people who understand human nature and history and realize that is an unrealistic fantasy.
Wow, groundbreaking stuff here…
My employers bills clients $350/hr for my time…suffice to say I do not make nearly that much. I don’t see anyone complaining about how my employer is screwing me. If I’m unhappy with my wage I will negotiate a higher one or quit. Apple retail employees are free to do the same. They have a job pretty much anybody can do. Their low wage is a result of supply and demand and should not depend much on the success of their employer.
Maybe there are Apple shareholders who make minimum wage. How would they feel about Apple cutting down their margins giving huge raises to retail employees who are easily replaceable?
Apple employees are prohibited from talking to the press. All of these people could be fired over this.
Read Bongo’s feedback above, they are free to leave, anyone can fill their unskilled retail shoes.
Termination of employment does not void the non-disclosure agreement; even ex-employees may be subject to legal reprisals.
Who cares what they have to say? They aint nothing but sales clerks.
What great professional skills do untrained retail personel habe that makes them entitled to higher wages than the above average wages they already make?
Don’t forget the perks (good heath insurance, employee discounts, bonuses and Apple prestige, to name a few) that are pretty generous that represent a huge premium.
Fact : At Apple, anyone who shows promise, talent and potential gets regognized and fast promoted, at which point compensation and salaries rise substantially like in no other company.
Bottom line – earn your keep.
I think some Apple employees ought to chime in here. Salary may vary per location, employee time worked, additional perks, etc.
If these people would rather work somewhere else – the door is always open.
Didnt they just get a $4/hour raise?