Earlier this week, the employees who work at Apple Stores got some large raises. 9 to 5 Mac reports that some team members this week have gotten pay raises that are as much as 30 percent higher than their previous salaries. In addition, Apple has launched a new program where, on top of the normal Apple Store employee discount of 25 percent, they can also get a $500 discount for most Macs and a $250 discount for iPads.
That's all well and good, but were these moves more than just Apple being nice to their retail team members? These pay raises and new discounts were revealed just a few days before the New York Times posted an extensive article on Saturday that offers some new information on what is really going on at Apple's highly successful retail store operation, which began in 2001.
The story points out that the stores make more money per square foot, than any other US retail store, period. While Apple does offer above average pay in terms of other retail industries for its workers, they don't match what workers at AT&T and Verizon stores make.
That's because AT&T and Verizon offer sales commissions on top of their salaries. The article states Apple's belief that commissions would "foster employee competition, which would undermine camaraderie." The lack of commissions tends to make most Apple Store employees on the young side, in their 20s.
While Apple won't be offering commissions with these new pay raises, at least Apple is trying to keep their employees happy with raises and more hardware discounts.
Source: New York Times
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