Apple is a publicly traded company. They have a legal obligation to maximise shareholder value. Maximising shareholder value means you can't institute policies such as paying rank and file staff more than the marketplace dictates you need to pay. It also doesn't afford you the luxury of maintaining a larger than necessary headcount.
Sorry, but this is not true at all.
If a corporation believes it's in its long-term best interests to pay above market rates to employees, they can do so. If they believe it's in their long term best interests to maintain an unusually large headcount, they can do that, too. This is very well settled. See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_judgment_rule
Basically, as long as the directors of the corporation have a good faith belief that their actions are in the long-term best interests of the corporation, they can do whatever they want (as long as it's not fraudulent or completely insane.)
Of course, a lot of corps just look at short term results and do focus on cost-cutting above all. But that's a choice they've made; it's not legally required.