Lost in all of this is that Apple is sitting on about $170 Billion in declared cash (there may be more undeclared in the care of their Jersey subsidiary which answers to no country). They can't rid themselves of it fast enough, adding more to the pot every day, and having nothing to spend it on. For all intents, it's serving no purpose other than hoarding, even though Apple says it intends to be cash-neutral. Someday. In a faraway time... and seem to have no idea how to get there.
But they'll fight tooth and nail against sharing even 1% percent of the billions in languishing cash with the least paid of their employees who represent the public face of Apple. And no, Apple is not the only stupidly wealthy hoarder, but this article isn't about the others. It just seems so ignorantly short-sighted and selfish.
Point 1. "That makes zero business sense. Apple is not a non-profit charity organization. The whole point of Apple (or any retail businesses) of opening and operating a retail stores is the hope of getting a descent ROI, from each of the stores they operate."
Point 2."Apple retail employees are being paid above the US average for retail employees, with better benefits and with an Apple Genius being one of the highest paid in retail. This is far from a case of a staving Oliver Twist ..... asking for more. Which the union wants people to think."
Point 3. "If Apple is going to give away their cash position sitting overseas, instead of returning it to their shareholders (like they been doing), then they should find a way to offer it to the Foxconn employees building Apple products in China. They deserve it more than the union employees (or those that wants to unionize) working in Apple retail stores.
Point 4. "You think Apple is the one being selfish with this demand?"
IMHO you're getting sloppy and going off on a tangent in the process.
2. You could have looked before posting. Except for an Apple Genius (technician), Apple store employees are not paid above-average salaries. As of last week, 11/16/23, the average hourly pay for an Apple Store Employee in the United States is $14.59 an hour. I think you'd make significantly more at BestBuy working the same position. "While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $16.83 and as low as $10.10, the majority of Apple Store Employee wages currently range between $13.46 (25th percentile) to $14.90 (75th percentile) across the United States." https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Apple-Store-Employee-Salary
IMO they get embarrassingly low wages, in the range of working at WalMart. Oh goody. Happy and successful frontline employees are better representatives for Apple, helping to maintain the appearance of luxury products deserving of the premium price. What's that worth? Apple is telling the store employees "not much", consider it an honor to work for us and be happy.
3. Apple has as much or more cash now as when they started "returning it to shareholders". BTW, what was the check amount you received this year as your portion of the $50B+ they gave back to you?
If negotiations are ongoing for a collective bargaining agreement any current benefits are status quo and won’t change. Any new benefits must be negotiated for via the CBA. Apple did nothing wrong here.
You’ll forgive me if I believe the opinion of the **National Labor Relations Board**, a governmental body charged with enforcing labour laws, over your uninformed and ignorant opinion.
And like all government elected bodies, the NLRB is not without bias. Their rulings are not final, not always correct and still can be appealed to the Federal courts (including the SCOTUS) by both parties involve.
>After evaluating the evidence, the judges issue initial decisions. ALJ decisions are subject to review by the Board in
Washington D.C., composed of five Members nominated by the President
and confirmed by the Senate. Any or all parties can appeal by filing
exceptions.<
When Trump was in his last year of his Presidency, would you still swear by the NLRB decisions, knowing that he got to nominate 4 of the 5 members of the NLRB? With POTUS Biden at the end of his 3rd year, he got to nominate 3 of the 5 members and a 4th come this January.
All well and good, if not for the history of Apple, union activity, and the NLRB. Both courts and/or the Federal Agency have already upheld the three previous Board rulings citing Apple's anti-union tactics. Some in Congress are chiming in to say Apple breaking labor laws has become a recurring pattern.
IMO the poor optics aren't worth the pittance denied to a few thousand employees seen treated as second class.
I ran a good medical device business for 40 years, so I know all about ROI and profitability. All that is a distraction from a simple premise: treat your people well.
This is not a difficult concept. Higher wage-benefits attract better people, and happy employees are more productive, which equals greater profitability. Again, this isn't hard. It doesn't matter what other "retail category" workers are paid. You want Apple staff to be better than "industry average", so treat them like it.
The true return on investment isn't just about per store profitability, it's friendlier, better service to the customer and longer employee retention, which slashes training costs and speeds handling of customer inquiries, problem-solving and order processing, which enhances the profitability.
..... It just seems so ignorantly short-sighted and selfish.
I admit to not following the situation closely, but I agree with you. This is where there has to be *someone* in management who has a clear enough big picture view to make all these avoidable self-inflicted injuries go away instead of festering. Do they like having some middle managers generating all the bad press and getting them into legal trouble to save what amounts to pocket change?
If it was me, I'd tell them to stop this shit right now, and if it happens again you're gone. There are better things for a corporation to spend time, attention and money on than nickel-and-diming the lowest tier of employees.
Tim, you actually have responsibilities beyond a quarterly financial report. Get back to your desk from your PR tour and make this go away.
And Tim insists Apple has values although sometimes I wonder exactly what they might be.
Comments
1. Apple stores are more profitable per square foot than nearly any other retailers including the most luxury of stores:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/07/28/apple-leads-brick-and-mortar-retail-with-5546-in-sales-per-square-foot
2. You could have looked before posting. Except for an Apple Genius (technician), Apple store employees are not paid above-average salaries. As of last week, 11/16/23, the average hourly pay for an Apple Store Employee in the United States is $14.59 an hour. I think you'd make significantly more at BestBuy working the same position.
"While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $16.83 and as low as $10.10, the majority of Apple Store Employee wages currently range between $13.46 (25th percentile) to $14.90 (75th percentile) across the United States."
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Apple-Store-Employee-Salary
Happy and successful frontline employees are better representatives for Apple, helping to maintain the appearance of luxury products deserving of the premium price. What's that worth? Apple is telling the store employees "not much", consider it an honor to work for us and be happy.
3. Apple has as much or more cash now as when they started "returning it to shareholders". BTW, what was the check amount you received this year as your portion of the $50B+ they gave back to you?
4. Yes I do.
IMO the poor optics aren't worth the pittance denied to a few thousand employees seen treated as second class.
This is not a difficult concept. Higher wage-benefits attract better people, and happy employees are more productive, which equals greater profitability. Again, this isn't hard. It doesn't matter what other "retail category" workers are paid. You want Apple staff to be better than "industry average", so treat them like it.
The true return on investment isn't just about per store profitability, it's friendlier, better service to the customer and longer employee retention, which slashes training costs and speeds handling of customer inquiries, problem-solving and order processing, which enhances the profitability.