Apple is like most larg corporations and offers an employee discount.
I do not think any consumer is pondering why an Apple employee gets a discount. Look at major Fortune 500 companies. JnJ, Merck, Pfizer - all offer discounted consumer products to employees. Ford, GM and Toyota all offer substantial employee discounts. Target offers a discunt, Barnes and Noble offers a discount. The Gap and Disney store off a discount. It is a rather common practice.
Just because Apple is doing well does not mean it should alter this practice. The additional money is a bonus to all employees. It will boost the sales numbers only slightly and allow Apple employees to buy more products at an even greater discount. The three year rule, as pointed out is to prevent secondary market sales. Very sane decision as that could erode consumer confidence.
As for cash bonus, again Apple like much of corporate America pays a bonus based on personal performance and company performance. Most Apple salaried non-retail employees are eligible to participate and I am sure they are doing very well by the program. The better your work evaluation and performance the more you can earn with a bonus. Again, quite standard in coporate America. It is possible that retail offers similar advantages to full time staff like managers. Very few part time employees anywhere get these perks. If I recall correctly, Apple retail is often 25% more pay per hour than typical retail jobs of a similar nature, so that is already built in.
As to Foxconn, Apple does not own them or control them. Just as they cannot dictate how Best Buy treats its employees, they cannot do that with Foxcon. They have done a good job (and yes, more can and should be done) to ensure better working conditions, safety and wages. Few companies would task their supplier with costing them more. You must admire Apple for this. Please also keep in mind China is a developing economy. Many of the employees are very happy with their wages and conditions. ANY and ALL companies can do better. But there is no proof that Samsung, IBM, Dell, HP or the like have done anything to strive for better wages and conditions in overseas factories. Bottom line is as consumers we demand a cheap product. You cannot pay the labor great wages if you sell as a commodity. Apple at least does use some of their margin to force suppliers to behave in a more socially responsible manner. Again it could be better, but technically speaking it is not the job of Apple to do this. They should morally do all they can, and ethically do it, but legally theyhave no obligation and many shareholders would object if they used that nearly 100 billion in cash for that purpose.
For Apple to have the turn around and success that it enjoys is nothing short of amazing. In the present world climate Apple, as a huge profitable corporation has a target and cannot please every one or every agenda. If they brought back manufacturing to the US, discunted Macs and iPhones and made all sorts of other changes, still many would be unsatisfied and likely those moves would destroy the company. Tim Cook is an operations guy and knows the fragile balance between global supply and cost and price.
Take this news at face value. Apple now offers its emplyees another perk for working a Apple and a nicer incentive to buy and use Apple products.
