Wow, 5 years of slavery before getting vacation time. Is 3 years of slavery even legal?
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Apple Attracting Retail Workers With Improved Benefits
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Without increasing prices of goods and services. Which usually is the case when payroll overhead is substantially increased.
Yup — and that's how I interpreted it at first, but than had second thoughts after reading some other comments
I found info on a couple third party sites that say you get twelve vacation days a year for the first three years, then it increases. So I think this article is saying the bump after three years has gone up.
I thought most companies offered at least one week after the first year. Edit: Nevermind, I just read the reply above this here post.
So, shouldn't it say "with more vacation time available after three years of employment instead of five years". False reporting. Delete.
Meanwhile in Germany:
20 days of vacation are mandatory for a 5-Day Week or 24 Days for a 6-Day Week. Good Jobs/companys that are under a good union control usually offer 30 Days.
Oh and the Elefant in the Room? 12 Days paid leave when sick? In Germany you get 6 weeks (!) per independet type of sickness.
Bless a working social security/healthcare system.
Edit: What I forget to mention: Parental leave can be up to 14 months (!) if both parents split the time and one of them takes a minimum of 2 months, otherwise it‘s 12 months. You get like 65% of your usual sallary (there is a cap, so it does not go above a certain amount).
Greetings
David
20 days of vacation are mandatory for a 5-Day Week or 24 Days for a 6-Day Week. Good Jobs/companys that are under a good union control usually offer 30 Days.
Oh and the Elefant in the Room? 12 Days paid leave when sick? In Germany you get 6 weeks (!) per independet type of sickness.
Bless a working social security/healthcare system.
Edit: What I forget to mention: Parental leave can be up to 14 months (!) if both parents split the time and one of them takes a minimum of 2 months, otherwise it‘s 12 months. You get like 65% of your usual sallary (there is a cap, so it does not go above a certain amount).
Greetings
David
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David - I'm jealous.
So many Americans have no idea how screwed we all get by MegaCorps over here.
I honestly think some of them don't even "believe" the stories about other countries.
Admitting it would mean acknowledgment of an unfairly underwhelming existence.
or.. the other pervasive nonsense here is that "the rest of the world is lazy" and "Americans work so much harder" and "America makes things and does things nobody else can -- enabled by our crap work conditions/arrangements"
It's all just gaslighting from US MegaCorps and their lobbying/media interests
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That is, hm, sad, to say the least.
I'm over 40, which means I get 6 weeks of vacation every year (35 days). The older you are, the more vacation you get, regardless of time at the company.
There is no limit on sick days, but you "only" get 80% of your pay during sick leave. The first 10 sick days are paid for by the company, after that you need a statement from a GP and the government takes over the majority payment of your salary.
Parental leave is a whooping 480 days per child. 3 months are reserved for each parent, 300 days can be split. You only get 80% of your salary on parental leave too. For every day you split equal, there's a bonus to be had.
We also have "parental sick leave", which means that up until the child is 12 years old, you may stay at home and care for the child up to 120 days per year, unless the child is seriously ill, then there's no limit.
This is mandated by law (only 20 (or 25, can't remember) days vacation is by law though), and companies that want to be "family friendly" or attract employees usually offer more vacation days, and pays for the 20% you don't get from the government while sick or on parental leave.
I'm over 40, which means I get 6 weeks of vacation every year (35 days). The older you are, the more vacation you get, regardless of time at the company.
There is no limit on sick days, but you "only" get 80% of your pay during sick leave. The first 10 sick days are paid for by the company, after that you need a statement from a GP and the government takes over the majority payment of your salary.
Parental leave is a whooping 480 days per child. 3 months are reserved for each parent, 300 days can be split. You only get 80% of your salary on parental leave too. For every day you split equal, there's a bonus to be had.
We also have "parental sick leave", which means that up until the child is 12 years old, you may stay at home and care for the child up to 120 days per year, unless the child is seriously ill, then there's no limit.
This is mandated by law (only 20 (or 25, can't remember) days vacation is by law though), and companies that want to be "family friendly" or attract employees usually offer more vacation days, and pays for the 20% you don't get from the government while sick or on parental leave.
Yeah, seriously. This is nothing to write home about.
I work for a small hospital system in Southern Oregon and you get benefits starting on Day 1, including vacation. You accrue 7.08 hours/pay check so 14 a month.
I now accrue 11 hours/pay check.
This all starts on Day 1.
Apple, you can do better and really should.
It’s about time! These benefits are now in line with corporate employee benefits.
Why there was such a discrepancy before, I never understood. It was Apple being mean to its retail employees.
Store employees are more at risk of being sick - with all the customers they handle and the cramped quarters when they’re in the break room - yet they were getting HALF the sick days of their counterparts in corporate.
It took a pandemic to make it right, I just wish Apple had done for the right reasons 21 years ago!
Why there was such a discrepancy before, I never understood. It was Apple being mean to its retail employees.
Store employees are more at risk of being sick - with all the customers they handle and the cramped quarters when they’re in the break room - yet they were getting HALF the sick days of their counterparts in corporate.
It took a pandemic to make it right, I just wish Apple had done for the right reasons 21 years ago!
Compared to the company I last worked at - these benefits are stingy.
2 $Trillion company with stingy benefits.
2 $Trillion company with stingy benefits.
Benefits are part and parcel of the thinking that goes into “do I want to work for a company”. I’ll bet you almost nobody will turn them down.
Working harder or longer is not a sign of productivity.
Actually several European countries are more productive than the US, one of them is Germany with their amazing benefits (vacation, sick leave, parental leave,…)
Most Productive Countries 2025
Discover population, economy, health, and more with the most comprehensive global statistics at your fingertips.
Thank you for that. I wanted to post the same thing earlier but was in a bit of a rush. I knew people had it wrong because, well... someone will figure it out. lol
Working harder or longer is not a sign of productivity.
Actually several European countries are more productive than the US, one of them is Germany with their amazing benefits (vacation, sick leave, parental leave,…)
Most Productive Countries 2025
Discover population, economy, health, and more with the most comprehensive global statistics at your fingertips.worldpopulationreview.com
Trying to understand. Your link puts US before Germany on the list of most technologically advanced so doesn't that mean US is working smarter rather than harder with more tech and automation?
No, the bold all caps was clearly necessary. It defies logic that apple could retain any employees with no vacation until five years, and is also the last thing you’d expect from a company like apple, so a moment’s thought should have been all anyone needed to get this straight, but alas this is the macrumors comment section, so…
Your comment seems to imply that the actual truth is that Apple treats their retail employees “great”
I’m not really sure there’s much data indicating that honestly
Twelve vacation days for the first three years (6 if part time) … “yay”?
Appreciate the clarification in the article that employees are given an amount of paid leave upon joining. Seems to be 12 days + time accrued for service. However….
As a former employee from the UK with just shy of 10 years service, I enjoyed 3 months of paid sick leave and 33 days of paid holiday/vacation time. (In the UK we have no need for private health care, as it’s covered by our taxes. But even still Apple offered us private health care for free)
This might be an updated benefits program, but still….it sounds absolutely appalling. That isn’t a work/life balance in my view.
*for free at point of use but was a tax deductible benefit. Amount was negligible though.
As a former employee from the UK with just shy of 10 years service, I enjoyed 3 months of paid sick leave and 33 days of paid holiday/vacation time. (In the UK we have no need for private health care, as it’s covered by our taxes. But even still Apple offered us private health care for free)
This might be an updated benefits program, but still….it sounds absolutely appalling. That isn’t a work/life balance in my view.
*for free at point of use but was a tax deductible benefit. Amount was negligible though.
More PTO is cool and all, but it sounds like wages is where they really have some work to do.