The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) recently published an article that takes a deeper look into Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s retail employee payment in comparison to the company’s earnings. The Times reported that the average Apple retail employee takes home $25,000 per year. What we found out was that on average, the Apple retail employee brings in $473,000 per year for the company.
However, after the initial “criticism” the Times end up saying that in fact Apple’s employees receive above average wages compared to the rest of the industry. The New York Times highlights the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) employee benefits package of partial payment of college tuition, gym membership, retirement plan, health care, product discounts and discounted stock plans.
Meanwhile, while the Times was writing the article, Apple senior VP of retail decided to speed up the plans for retail employee raise which was originally scheduled to go into effect in September. Under the new payment plan, some employees will see an increase of 30% in their paychecks.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) still has a few kinks to work out with its retail division but ultimately the retail side of Apple has been the key to its success. While Apple employees did receive above average payment and benefits compared to the rest of the industry, Apple is not an average company. Obviously when the average retail employee brings in $473,000 for the firm and only receives $25,000 in compensation, that is a mismatch.
Luckily for Apple, the pay increases came at a good time. It is hard to speculate what the repercussions would have been from this article but likely it could have caused some problems for the company.
Apple defended its decision against worker commissions by saying that it would likely cause competition between employees. While Apple has never paid workers commissions for sales numbers, it is pretty safe to say that employee pay would be higher if you consider the facts from the beginning of this article. In the end, I think Apple made the right decision against commissions.
The bottom line here is that Apple is a solid company and its great that they gave a much deserved pay increase to its retail workers. That being said, an internal report showed that the company’s Genius Bar has a high level of dissatisfaction which is something Apple needs to work out. That aside, Apple continues to have strength in its retail part of the business which will help continue Apple’s success story.
Disclosure: No positions
