Apple's Retail Store Staff Compensation Criticized

[IJ Reilly]

This is pretty ridiculous, since when do companies "share" their wealth with employees based on dollars earned per square foot? They aren't owners, they're employees. As long as their compensation is comparable to other retail jobs, where's the problem? No one gets rich working retail, that sucks but that's just the way it is. You want to get rich then write some software after leaving the Apple Store.

What you say is true, as far as it goes. But the big picture is one of stagnant wages and downward mobility for a very large part of the U.S. workforce. This has been going on for 35 years or more, as the economy shifts from a manufacturing to a service basis. Most of these jobs pay less than a living wage and provide little or no opportunity for advancement. So while Apple is no worse than most and perhaps better than many in the industry, the problem of such a large part of our workforce being stuck in poorly paying, deadend jobs is very real. The only problem with the Times article is that it picks on Apple instead of a company (say, Wal-Mart) that treats their employees even worse, and fails to go after the larger issue.

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We recently put a job opening up on Craigslist for a small retail store in NY for pretty much a stock boy / delivery boy position at 8 bucks an hour with no health benefits. We got over 200 applicants in 7 days.

Making 12 bucks an hour, plus full medical and 401K in a mall selling computers that essentially sell themselves is pretty sweet in my opinion.

I think you are drawing entirely the wrong lesson from your example.

 

[StupidNerd]

I don't understand why people are so upset about higher wages. Yeah it is retail, but these people do more than just ringing up high ticket items. Often they are providing solutions to you and your idiotic family members that cannot figure anything out or refuse to use google. These people are the reason customers go to apple stores and not walmart, target or best buy. I don't see anything wrong with looking for ways to retain or attract good employees.

 

[chairguru22]

I used to work at the Apple store in KOP, PA making $10/hr. The people who ran the kiosks in the middle selling Pillow Pals and knockoff sunglasses got $15/hr. Many other retailers got paid more.

You can't have a family and afford Apple products for $10/hr.

 

[joeshmo2010]

If you want to make some good money in retail, then work for Neimen Marcus or Nordstrom. The top three sellers in my dept at Nordstrom make between 80K-110K a year. All commission, no base. (If you make base then you're going I get fired because you only get base if you don't meet your goals)

 

[ade2bee]

Why is everyone blinkered and stuck to the fact that if you do something for a living you should be hearded into a certain wage/socio-economic level. If you work for a outstanding brand, and it is proven that you have contributed at a major level to that brand you should get the percentage of the wealth, therefore work harder or justify it. That is capitalism. Don't get enough wage there get another job, that is the evilness of globalism.

 

[Pyrrhic Victory]

Anyone who whines about retailers' compensation should remember that if Apple wasn't so greedy, there would be no iDevices, Macs, or any other of your favorite Apple products. They devote so much time and effort into developing new technology because there's such a massive amount of money to be made.

 

[Peace]

So..when did Google/Samsung buy the NY Times ?

 

[jelew1985]

That depends highly on what you sell and how valuable you are. 95% of retail employees do not make anything above minimum hourly wage. Not a whole lot even if you work for a major big company. Now if you are selling cars and making commission on each sale along with a regular salary (with guaranteed hours) then yea. Not too many people that can do that though.

Yea a traditional Retail employee don't make much and it sucks for them. They should be compensated at least a little more. A company like Apple could set the pay structure a little different where they have a base pay of $10 and then a percentage of what they sell. So if they were to sell $500,000 and be given 1.8% of that, it would put them at $20,780 + $9,000 (of commission). That would be pretty healthy of a pay for them. This is based on 40 a week. I know they may not necessarily get 40 a week. But just giving a rough idea what can be done.

The company I work for treats their employees very well and compensates them well also.

 

[TMar]

I used to work at the Apple store in KOP, PA making $10/hr. The people who ran the kiosks in the middle selling Pillow Pals and knockoff sunglasses got $15/hr.

You can't have a family and afford Apple products for $10/hr.

If your lifetime career choice is retail salesperson at a mall you might want to look into some of your past life choices.

 

[emaja]

I used to work at the Apple store in KOP, PA making $10/hr. The people who ran the kiosks in the middle selling Pillow Pals and knockoff sunglasses got $15/hr. Many other retailers got paid more.

You can't have a family and afford Apple products for $10/hr.

Not to be too callous, but get a different job and cut your expenses if your current one does not meet your needs. I understand the job market is tight, but those are your choices.

No one says you have to be able to afford the products you sell.

 

[cosmichobo]

I used to be a credit controller for an insurance company...

I chased $millions every month... and only ever had to write off/send for legal action a very tiny %...

Only got paid $35,000pa...

Admittedly, if the company made a profit for the year, there was a bonus paid to employees, however due to technical losses and other bookkeeping, I only received that bonus once...

 

[hissyfit]

How about lowering prices, that'll boom sales!

 

[Pyrrhic Victory]

Why is everyone blinkered and stuck to the fact that if you do something for a living you should be hearded into a certain wage/socio-economic level. If you work for a outstanding brand, and it is proven that you have contributed at a major level to that brand you should get the percentage of the wealth, therefore work harder or justify it. That is capitalism. Don't get enough wage there get another job, that is the evilness of globalism.

Wrong, capitalism follows the law of supply and demand, not the labor theory of value. There is no reason for Apple to pay ANY of its employees, including executives, a penny more than the market will bear. I guarantee you there are some directors and maybe even executives who feel they are underpaid. But Apple has created so much demand for employment relative to the supply of available positions that it has depressed the compensation the market has determined as being fair for those positions.

 

[fitshaced]

Sometimes when you walk into a store (any store), you get a sales person who actually has to do his job and convince you that te product he has is right for you. You decide if you want to buy it or not. If you do, that guy has earned his money and deserves commission.

Walk into an apple store and you get fewer staff having to do that due to the apple fans holding their wallets open even before a release of a new product. That's not difficult. Sure, having to deal with a difficult customer is hard. That doesn't mean you deserve a bigger portion of the pie. The first thing you get taught when dealing with customers is to not take it personally. If you do, you shouldn't be in retails. If you don't, you job really isn't that hard anymore.

If you want to earn more money, find a different job. These guys owe apple nothing and apple owe them what they said they'd pay them.

 

[chairguru22]

Yea a traditional Retail employee don't make much and it sucks for them. They should be compensated at least a little more. A company like Apple could set the pay structure a little different where they have a base pay of $10 and then a percentage of what they sell. So if they were to sell $500,000 and be given 1.8% of that, it would put them at $20,780 + $9,000 (of commission). That would be pretty healthy of a pay for them. This is based on 40 a week. I know they may not necessarily get 40 a week. But just giving a rough idea what can be done.

The company I work for treats their employees very well and compensates them well also.

$500,000/yr is LOW too... that's $240/hr...

Apple will never do commission based pay. Too many people lining up for these jobs because it's fun to work there. Turnover rate is high since people move on to bigger and better things.

 

[TheNextBigThing]

The fact that Apple employs tens of thousands of jobs in US is already a big contribution in the US Economy.

 

[Icy1007]

Because making ~$12.00 at a retail job is terrible.

Yeah, that's pretty bad.

 

[alfonsog]

Back in the day before wages stagnated someone could make a living and even support the spouse and a kid from just being a retail salesperson. Now that's a job for young people or a spouse's or second job for adults. Apple pays more than the average retailer. It's up to you if you think that is fair. Disney World pays much less than average yet my friends still work there because its Disney.

 

[jelew1985]

$500,000/yr is LOW too... that's $240/hr...

Apple will never do commission based pay. Too many people lining up for these jobs because it's fun to work there. Turnover rate is high since people move on to bigger and better things.

I think you may have misread that... $500,000 is the sales volume of what an employee sales in a year not their pay. Which is why I mentioned they could pay them a small percentage of their personal sales volume.

 

[ethana]

Apple's pay rates are above average for the retail sector, but the Times argues that with each retail store employee bringing in an average of $500,000 in sales per year Apple is not a typical retailer.

LOL. This statement is so lame. The reason Apple makes $500,000/yr isn't because of the employees. It's because of the products, advertising, design of the retail stores, pricing, training of the employees on how to act, etc. THAT is what makes the money.

No offense to anyone here who works at an Apple retail store but you are just like any other retail outlet. You will get trained to act and perform in a specific way, and you will get paid low wages, end of story. Why? Because most anyone with a high school degree can get trained to do what you do. Just because a company makes millions doesn't mean that you get a piece of the pie.

This is America, king of capitalism. If you don't like what you get paid, do one of the following:

1. Find a new job that pays higher.
2. Get an education and then do #1.

Apple has done a fine job at keeping pace with similar retailers. I think it's crap that they are getting slammed on this when practically EVERY American company (including Apple) outsources their assembly lines to China where they get paid $0.03/hr!

NYT is nitpicking at Apple because they are so big. That is ALL this is.

Ethan

 

[chairguru22]

I think you may have misread that... $500,000 is the sales volume of what an employee sales in a year not their pay. Which is why I mentioned they could pay them a small percentage of their personal sales volume.

Selling $500,000/yr volume is low. It's $240/hr. Or less than an iPod Touch/hr... You can do two MBP in 15 min... or 4 iPhones in 2 min...

An Apple employee could break $1,000,000 pretty easily...

 

[swingerofbirch]

I agree with the angry sentiment expressed throughout the thread. These unskilled workers don't realize how lucky they are to be part a movement so much bigger than they are and so much more important than their individual lives. I feel like if we could round up all the true believers on MacRumors, we could petition Apple to allow us to volunteer in their retail stores, which might allow Apple to at the least stop this wage inflation. Even if we already have full time jobs, we could pitch in on the weekends when Apple Stores are the busiest. Some of us think that our duties as evangelists ended when Apple became the world's most valuable company, but really we are now in a position where we are at the top and we have to fight to stay here. Our mission may no longer be to convert people since the "rest of us" is now all of us, but it takes on different forms such as disputing the myths about labor issues in China and ensuring Apple's American labor doesn't forget what and whom it's working for.

 

[hollin]

As a former Apple retail employee, I'm curious. Why are people complaining for me? I loved my job.

 

[Small White Car]

On the one hand, Apple's paying more than they have to, suply and demand, capitalism, yadda yadda yadda. Bottom line, they don't deserve complaints over this. So I'm not actually critisizing Apple. Clearly they don't need to pay more, so why should they?

On the other hand, it's interesting to think of a car salesman who moves $500,000 worth of cars per year. He'd be making way more money doing that.

So it's interesting...we like to compare computers to cars so much, but here's one place the analogy falls flat. Why the difference? If supply and demand means people will sell Macs for $25k, why won't car salesman? Is that job really much harder?

Or does the article have a point? Perhaps people's love of Apple is keeping their employee 'supply' numbers artificially higher than they should be.

Again, I'm not saying that's Apple's fault. Just that it might be true and, if so, that's interesting.

 

[levitynyc]

I used to work at the Apple store in KOP, PA making $10/hr. The people who ran the kiosks in the middle selling Pillow Pals and knockoff sunglasses got $15/hr. Many other retailers got paid more.

You can't have a family and afford Apple products for $10/hr.

Ask a luxury car salesman how many product he sells that he can actually afford.