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Apple Retail Store Staff Set to Gain Raises of Up to 25%

Sky Blue said:
A Genius only gets $30 an hour? Not sure why they do that over a systems admin job that would pay a lot more.
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b/c you really don't need to be a genius, to be a Genius.

a systems admin job requires a lot more education, and many positions these days are contract / part-time without benefits. perhaps being a FT Genius with apple yields a more stable steady check (just a guess)
 
Tinyluph said:
Sadly $9 is actually pretty good for a starting wage in retail in America.
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8h a day, 40h a week gives a total amount of $1440 a month. Pretty decent for an entry level job. Now with the increase of 25% they'll pay around $1800 minimum for their workers.

In Brazil I think there isn't any official retail store, but there are Apple employees promoting Apple products in electronics stores like Fnac. I wonder if the highest end "genius" could ever reach $1440 a month here.
 
neiltc13 said:
Given that Apple has made such a shift to dumbing down its products, removing Pro features and leaving Pro machines to stagnate, do they really need the "Genius Bar" any more?

They could just stick a poster up showing how to do a hard reset on your iPad, if it doesn't work, put it into this big box and get a new one.
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LOL ... this made me laugh :D
 
basesloaded190 said:
For a 16 year old kid trying to sell Apple products part-time, that isn't that bad. I never made $9/hour until I got to college.
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I'm just starting college now, and that is terrible for retail.

I was a grocery personal. When I started (at 15) my pay was $8 an hour for a job a monkey could do. By the time I left, I was making $10 an hour for a job not much more complicated.

$9 to actually be as good as Apple staff seems really bad.

I should also note that the store I worked at recently raised its minimum wages to $8.50 an hour.

Anyways... sounds like Microsoft is having a positive impact to me. They're increasing the demand for such qualified staff and as a result, raising their wages. I seriously doubt Apple will use that to justify increasing costs, especially with Tim Cook in charge who seems a lot more compassionate to the common entry level worker.

For Apple, it seems to me that their expenses have little to do with their costs. They sell their products at as high a price as the market is willing, and they pay as little as they can to get the quality products they want made. Those two rules have little to do with each other.
 
mms13 said:
Sadly this is true. The only thing any of the geniuses have ever done for me is swap out my broken iPhones.
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Geniuses, in my experience, are an exceptional group. They do far more than just 'swap out your broken phone.' You may have been an excellent customer and not given them any grief, but I can tell you this is not the norm. An extraordinary amount of people come in with very aggressive attitudes and take it unjustly out on a Genius (e.g. iPhone dropped in water....angry this isn't covered under warranty).

Apple Retail employees, for all intents and purposes, are the face of Apple. Specialists for when a customer comes in to purchase a product, Geniuses when they have problems, Creatives when they come for training.

I think it's safe to say Apple Retail are there because they want to be and are proud to be employees of Apple.
 
jgg204 said:
b/c you really don't need to be a genius, to be a Genius.

a systems admin job requires a lot more education, and many positions these days are contract / part-time without benefits. perhaps being a FT Genius with apple yields a more stable steady check (just a guess)
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It's a shame, when I was behind the bar before 2006, we were on salary and not by the hour, with avg pay ~$50k/year depending on position and store. We had to have two weeks training at Cupertino and at least an associates degree in computer science or such.

I didn't realize they are hourly now (or at least some). Yes, the general consumer has iDevices or perhaps a MacBook/Pro or iMac, back then most of our work dealt with PowerMac's and displays, and the occasional issue with syncing a RAZR with OS X. Times change.
 
Adidas Addict said:
A genius can really earn eh
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I wonder about the accuracy of that.

Tinyluph said:
Sadly $9 is actually pretty good for a starting wage in retail in America.
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Let's see.... minimum wage is $7.25 in the US. Certain states and cities have it set higher, so it can be over $9 in certain places. It's all relative, but I'd hardly call it good even for an easy job. Apple Store employees aren't always that knowledgeable, but I always felt the Apple Stores were there to make you want to buy things after messing with them. They're spaced out giving you a certain amount of personal space. The display machines are well maintained and operate smoothly, and the buildings always look different when compared to the surrounding retail structures.

neiltc13 said:
Given that Apple has made such a shift to dumbing down its products, removing Pro features and leaving Pro machines to stagnate, do they really need the "Genius Bar" any more?

They could just stick a poster up showing how to do a hard reset on your iPad, if it doesn't work, put it into this big box and get a new one.
Click to expand...

Aside from a couple of them that were pretty cool and knew Unix commands, most of them aren't very helpful if it's a significant problem. They act more like a check in station that can deal with some of the simple problems presented by people who are extremely tech illiterate. They were never about "Pro:cool:" machines and features. If it needed real testing, the machine would still be checked in. This has always been the case.
 
They deserve the pay raise. A retail job is as sh`tty as cleaning toilets for a living. Both jobs deal with crap and scum.
 
jgg204 said:
b/c you really don't need to be a genius, to be a Genius.

a systems admin job requires a lot more education, and many positions these days are contract / part-time without benefits. perhaps being a FT Genius with apple yields a more stable steady check (just a guess)
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This ^^ I had to help my genius hook up my mac mini to a TV when I brought it in for HDMI problems lol

System admin jobs also probably want certain certifications ... Apple just wants you to somewhat know the product (more than the average consumer) I am guessing.
 
For those who do not live in America, minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. In some cases a company may not have to pay minimum wages ( they are small). I have been working at the same grocery store for 8 months and I still make $7.25. The pay instead is relatively good for a retail job
 
$30/hr for a Genius? Makes me wonder how much their engineers get paid… Once I'm done making planes I'll join Apple. :)

EDIT: -4? Really? What's wrong with this?!
 
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Anti-Lucifer said:
They deserve the pay raise. A retail job is as sh`tty as cleaning toilets for a living. Both jobs deal with crap and scum.
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yep, they do have to deal with a ton of entitled customers who think they can speak however they want to you just because you work in a store they have to visit.

Plus, with apple having a billion in cash floating around, there is no reason to not bump everyones pay!!
 
Sky Blue said:
A Genius only gets $30 an hour? Not sure why they do that over a systems admin job that would pay a lot more.
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because the bar to becoming a "Genius" is quite a bit lower than the bar to becoming a real sys admin.

The primary difference between "Genius" and someone with good Google-fu these days is that the "Genius" has access to little ipod-based hardware utilities that he can plug into your iDevice and run an automated diagnostic test.

Battery trouble with your MBP? Let me plug this little iPod in and push "test battery." Oh, OK. it says your power supply has failed. Please stand by while I scan a barcode and the system tells me which drawer the replacement part is in.
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Nothing wrong with automating systems. But if you have a real confusing problem that would require some actual knowledge and detective work, most of the new "Genius Bar" attendees today couldn't tell you one end of a terminal prompt from another. Walk in there and tell them you're having trouble with an XGrid node and watch their eyes glaze over.
 
$30/hours = $60k/year. that's very sad if they pay the most experienced genius at that wage. i can't imagine the quality of employees they can find at $9-15/hour...it's a minor miracle they have such a good morale, but i still find 3/4 of the employees clueless on their technology. for example, no one could tell me if the new MBA SSD was as fast as retina, or if they carry Thunderbolt storage device (raid 0 external hard drive), or if Xcode is retina optimized, etc.
 
With the economy the way still faltering it's good to see the average employee get a raise. Usually all we hear about is the extraordinary pay of the high level execs.
 
doobybiggs said:
yep, they do have to deal with a ton of entitled customers who think they can speak however they want to you just because you work in a store they have to visit.

Plus, with apple having a billion in cash floating around, there is no reason to not bump everyones pay!!
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Americans look like liberals when talking about Foxconn workers, but argue like socialists when talking about american Apple workers.
 
About time. I only worked in the Apple Store for a year, but in that short amount of time I saw managers introduce more and more responsibilities while the pay stayed the same, and that's why I left in the end. It's a great place to work in, but I'm glad I've moved onto a job that pays twice as much and isn't anywhere near as stressful. Bottom line, these people deserve the pay rise.
 
foodog said:
I saw one "lady" completely lose her mind at the Genius bar when she was returning her new iPhone. The Apple store employee wouldn't give her a refund for all the accessories she bought at an AT&T store because they were AT&T products. I even tried to reason with her. She just kept yelling until the manager finally just gave her the money. As she walked away he asked if any one wanted the cheap rubber case, no one spoke up and he threw it in the trash.
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Saw a rather similar case in another store. I wish I had the presence of mind to have turned on my iPhone's video camera and started shooting. This is one of the reasons I try to be kind to retail staff despite of the fact they irritate me with their lack of product knowledge, they have to deal with trash like this by the handful.
 
$30/hour for a genius seems high. I'm an AppleCare tier 1 advisor and make $9.15 an hour, and tier 2 advisors make $10.15 an hour at the vendor I work for (it's obviously much higher if you work for Apple directly, but most AppleCare advisors are contracted). I get calls from geniuses all the time to do consults (they're supposed to consult with tier 2s but accidentally call tier 1 sometimes) and I often have to walk them step by step through some pretty simple procedures. Frustrating because they don't even realize I'm contracted and don't get their same perks, i.e., healthcare benefits, discounts, stock options, etc.
 
Its about time. Being a Genius in a high traffic store making 15 bucks an hour was ridiculous. Our lead was only making like 20. Once I left Apple my salary tripled.

swingerofbirch said:
$30/hour for a genius seems high. I'm an AppleCare tier 1 advisor and make $9.15 an hour, and tier 2 advisors make $10.15 an hour at the vendor I work for (it's obviously much higher if you work for Apple directly, but most AppleCare advisors are contracted). I get calls from geniuses all the time to do consults (they're supposed to consult with tier 2s but accidentally call tier 1 sometimes) and I often have to walk them step by step through some pretty simple procedures. Frustrating because they don't even realize I'm contracted and don't get their same perks, i.e., healthcare benefits, discounts, stock options, etc.
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Thats because all the good Genii left Apple years ago because of terrible pay and the new Genii being terribly trained and not competent.
 
They dont need to give them more money, there are plenty more unskilled workers to replace any of their staff.
 
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