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Unionized Maryland Apple Store Workers Request 10% Raise and Option to Accept Customer Tips
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100% this. This is like turkeys voting for xmas & the general public are the turkeys. What's going to happen if they get their way, does anyone seriously believe that Apple would just roll over & accept the decreased margins introduced by commission sales, course they're not, prices would increase to account for it & what is already a high price in the UK would get higher. I thought the 25% price bump on the M2 MBP was painful, this idea would kill it out of most folks reach & market share would decrease in lost sales.
It happened before when everyone was celebrating the move from Intel to AS, everyone thought yay prices will drop as Apple don't have to pay the big margins to Intel, all that's happened is base models dropped slightly (nowhere near SJ's reign though) & everything ramped up across the board, the same would happen again. Hell they've even reduced refurb, EPP scheme's & trade-in % just chasing the profit.
I'm all for anyone getting a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, but without Apple the staff wouldn't have the opportunity and support to sell such high priced products with such ease.
I get the thought process behind it for staff thinking 'I've sold x amount of product for x amount of dollars and I'm not getting anything' attitude, but it's a job, they knew this when they signed up to it & from what I gather it's not necessarily a low paid job with zero benefits.
And I do understand that maybe a genius visit results in plause from customers that have 'serious' issues that are resolved and customers are grateful, but tipping nor commission is the answer, despite what some may think, brand loyalty should trump all as repeat custom means job security.
The only negotiating I'd enter into as the employer is to drop the current hourly rate & build commission into existing pay & no-one in their right mind would want that.
I like the perceived impartibility that Apple stores provide but from time to time that mask slips & it's easy to see that targets do exist behind the scenes, commission based selling would just ramp it to a whole new level with both consumers and staff losing out.
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You’re writing your own story and reasoning into this. The article clearly says “to offer 3%, 5%, or custom tips when checking out with an in-store credit card transaction.”
This inherently guilts many people into doing this because it makes people think it’s normal to tip in that situation. It should be criminal.
In most of the situations you describe, I didn’t have to pay anything to the Apple “genius” because it was covered under applecare. How would someone tip like you suggest then?
This is a patently absurd idea. But I do see that it is their negotiation position.
I used to be part of a union when I worked retail. Biggest joke ever.
The only people who need to be in a union are those that work dirty and/or dangerous jobs. No retail employee needs to be in a union. Just my $0.02.
The only people who need to be in a union are those that work dirty and/or dangerous jobs. No retail employee needs to be in a union. Just my $0.02.
Definitely! That's perfectly reasonable to do. I had a pet pass away last year. Nearly two decades of selfless love and devotion. Absolutely deserving of grief.
I don't see the problem with someone taking bereavement time for any reason they choose. Doesn't matter if it's because they had to flush their goldfish or their child passed away, it's none of the company's business why they're grieving. So that part I'm fine with. That's the employee's personal business. But taking two months of unquestioned bereavement every year? That seems beyond excessive. Maybe 45 days in a career.
I worked in a pizza restaurant back around 1980. Servers in the company's state made minimum server's wage while the rest made more than $2.17 per hour. The company tried to help servers in all of their 83 locations by making everyone under the manager and assistant manager into a general worker. Customers hated going to the front to order. The company has fewer than 20 locations now.
I don't think Apple should prevent employees from accepting tips, but wasn't the whole point of tips to subsidize places that pay below minimum wage? Apple already pays a pretty competitive rate for retail.
When I was a cart and bagger boy at the grocery store, despite being in a Union, we had to REFUSE tips. Absolutely. Little'Ol ladies always trying to give me something for helping them with their bags out to the car. Nope, couldn't accept. They put the fear in to us too. That they sent out folks to "test" us. 3 write-ups and you're gone. Missed out on some nice unreported cash. 
I used to work at a grocery store way back in the mid-90s and people would often offer tips for things. A buck for helping someone out to their car or bagging their stuff or whatever. It happened a lot and we were not allowed due to company policy to accept. I suspect that's all this is. Those of you thinking they want to implement prompts in the check out for tips or whatever, you've clearly never been in that situation.
This isn’t asking for the moon. This is asking for the solar system.
Aim high but not so high that you end up hitting yourself when the arrow/stone/bullet comes back down.
/Yes, I'm mixing metaphors on purpose.
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I can understand tipping if someone has a big order that requires helping the customer get it to their car. Then I give a tip for the extra help. But I don't tip at the register or anything.
“they want Apple to implement a tipping system that would provide customers with the option to offer 3%, 5%, or custom tips when checking out with an in-store credit card transaction.”
This is requesting percentage based check-out tip prompts, per the article.
Rubbish on the tip side of thing! Good service is the responsibility of the employee that'll also determine one's opportunity to advance, not something that the customer will have to fork out extra money for. So screwed up with that tip culture in the US!
As a non American, it seems to make about as much sense.
What is the typical wage at the Apple store? Does anyone know? Maryland min wage is $13.25 per hour, so it must be at least that.
This whole push to put min wages up high is crazy. These types of jobs... fast food places, retail at the mall etc have typically over the years been filled by high school and college kids. It was gas money, not meant to raise a family of 4 on. When you start paying $20 per hour for these jobs, then you end up with a Big Mac costing $7.
If Apple is required to pay these people more, they will end up putting self service machines in the stores and cutting the staff.
This whole push to put min wages up high is crazy. These types of jobs... fast food places, retail at the mall etc have typically over the years been filled by high school and college kids. It was gas money, not meant to raise a family of 4 on. When you start paying $20 per hour for these jobs, then you end up with a Big Mac costing $7.
If Apple is required to pay these people more, they will end up putting self service machines in the stores and cutting the staff.
People in this forum: yes unionze! Stick it to the big corporation. Anyone against unions is against basic human rights
Union: we want money. More money. Money from Apple, and why don’t you give me some of yours too.
People in this forum: what this impacts customers? This is terrible, madness, I’ll never shop there again.
Union: we want money. More money. Money from Apple, and why don’t you give me some of yours too.
People in this forum: what this impacts customers? This is terrible, madness, I’ll never shop there again.
When I worked for Apple ages ago I had tons of customers that wanted to tip me or buy me iPhone/iPad etc.
Company's policy is strictly no tips/gifts etc.
The amount of times I had to do refunds for customers that got 2 items and 1 was for me but they told me after I made the transaction was insane. Whether or not its good is another matter but customers do insist to sometimes treat you.
So giving them an option (non invasive one) could solve both problems but its hard to say.
Company's policy is strictly no tips/gifts etc.
The amount of times I had to do refunds for customers that got 2 items and 1 was for me but they told me after I made the transaction was insane. Whether or not its good is another matter but customers do insist to sometimes treat you.
So giving them an option (non invasive one) could solve both problems but its hard to say.
Minimum wage in Australia is A$21.38 per hour (which converts to US$14.32). In the U.S. It is $7.25 if no minimum is set in that state, but the average is $15, so about the same in Australia. States need to set a minimum wage on the average, and you can get rid of tipping. It’s not needed here, so why do they need it in the US?
Is tipping a solution to anything? Or does it hold back the market from reaching a permanent and effective solution?
Is tipping a lifeline to workers? Or does it perpetuate the ongoing subjugation and indignity of workers?
Are tippers the heroes? Or are they the villains who maintain the oppression and segregation of the less fortunate?
Are tippers the progressives? Or are they the ones who self-righteously cling to a racist root so that they can continue looking down at service workers as their inferiors that require their charity, then scoffing at those who refrain from doing the same?
I am not siding with or against these articles, but just presenting them here as ammo to cause chaos in your next family Sunday brunch or Thanksgiving dinner.
www.washingtonpost.com
That's another wrinkle that many people don’t know about, right? Tipping in the United States actually dates back to slavery.
The origin of tipping is really the feudal system, it’s this idea of noblesse oblige. But when tipping came to the United States, it had a real racial tinge to it, because, originally, the workers who earned tips were almost exclusively black workers—they were newly freed slaves...
The restaurant industry, which was hiring newly freed slaves as tipped workers, really wanted the right to hire these workers but pay them next to nothing. So they put forth this idea that they were valueless and really shouldn’t have to be paid by their employers. They essentially made the argument that newly freed slaves should get a zero dollar wage.
And part of the racial divide, part of what made tipping such a race-specific practice, is that there was a cultural stigma where white people would balk at the idea of being tipped because they found it degrading?
Exactly. In fact, among the six states that passed tipping bans, five of them were southern states, and it was based on this idea that black workers were the only workers making tips, because there was this idea that you only tip inferiors. That is what I mean when I say the origins are noblesse oblige. The origin is that you tip an inferior. When the practice came to the United States, the newly freed slaves, the black workers, were the equivalent of the proletariat in the feudal system. When these states banned tipping, it was because they were trying to discourage whites from tipping instead of actually paying former slaves.
So when we talk about the quiet ways in which racism persists in society today, tipping is this strange remnant that most people probably aren’t aware of.
Yes, absolutely. But you know, that racial segregation still exists, albeit in a slightly different form. We’ve done a ton of research on racial segregation in our industry, which is still incredibly pervasive. There is still a $4 per hour wage gap between what white workers and workers of color make in the restaurant industry, and it’s because workers of color are relegated to lower level positions. In fine dining, they work as buses and runners, instead of as server and bartenders. They also work in lower level segments, at places like Olive Garden instead of at places like Capital Grille. They work in places where you make less money.
So the origins are racist, but the current impact, the current reality, is inherently racist, too. Because of the two-tiered system, because of the racial segregation, the people who are most impacted and impoverished by the current tipping system are people of color, and in particular women of color.
www.politico.com
Is tipping a lifeline to workers? Or does it perpetuate the ongoing subjugation and indignity of workers?
Are tippers the heroes? Or are they the villains who maintain the oppression and segregation of the less fortunate?
Are tippers the progressives? Or are they the ones who self-righteously cling to a racist root so that they can continue looking down at service workers as their inferiors that require their charity, then scoffing at those who refrain from doing the same?
I am not siding with or against these articles, but just presenting them here as ammo to cause chaos in your next family Sunday brunch or Thanksgiving dinner.
I dare you to read this and still feel good about tipping
If you knew the history of tipping, you'd never see it the same way again.
www.washingtonpost.com
That's another wrinkle that many people don’t know about, right? Tipping in the United States actually dates back to slavery.
The origin of tipping is really the feudal system, it’s this idea of noblesse oblige. But when tipping came to the United States, it had a real racial tinge to it, because, originally, the workers who earned tips were almost exclusively black workers—they were newly freed slaves...
The restaurant industry, which was hiring newly freed slaves as tipped workers, really wanted the right to hire these workers but pay them next to nothing. So they put forth this idea that they were valueless and really shouldn’t have to be paid by their employers. They essentially made the argument that newly freed slaves should get a zero dollar wage.
And part of the racial divide, part of what made tipping such a race-specific practice, is that there was a cultural stigma where white people would balk at the idea of being tipped because they found it degrading?
Exactly. In fact, among the six states that passed tipping bans, five of them were southern states, and it was based on this idea that black workers were the only workers making tips, because there was this idea that you only tip inferiors. That is what I mean when I say the origins are noblesse oblige. The origin is that you tip an inferior. When the practice came to the United States, the newly freed slaves, the black workers, were the equivalent of the proletariat in the feudal system. When these states banned tipping, it was because they were trying to discourage whites from tipping instead of actually paying former slaves.
So when we talk about the quiet ways in which racism persists in society today, tipping is this strange remnant that most people probably aren’t aware of.
Yes, absolutely. But you know, that racial segregation still exists, albeit in a slightly different form. We’ve done a ton of research on racial segregation in our industry, which is still incredibly pervasive. There is still a $4 per hour wage gap between what white workers and workers of color make in the restaurant industry, and it’s because workers of color are relegated to lower level positions. In fine dining, they work as buses and runners, instead of as server and bartenders. They also work in lower level segments, at places like Olive Garden instead of at places like Capital Grille. They work in places where you make less money.
So the origins are racist, but the current impact, the current reality, is inherently racist, too. Because of the two-tiered system, because of the racial segregation, the people who are most impacted and impoverished by the current tipping system are people of color, and in particular women of color.
The Racist History of Tipping
Employers pay tipped workers $2.13 an hour. Why? Reconstruction-era racial discrimination.
www.politico.com
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The tipping is ridiculous in this instance. Im ok with the Union part but the tipping is just so out of it. This is not a restaurant for crying out loud.
How about time and a half for more than 8 and double for weekends and holidays... like everyone else. /smh
Socialism at it's finest. Do a good job, get a tip, share said tip with the slackers. /smh I would never tip a retail employee, too bad I would never go to that store because I would love to smash no and tell them it was specifically because it was a union store. I only ever tip wait staff.
WHAT?!?! That is over 12% of the calendar year! No one gets anywhere near 45 bereavement days, that is just stupid. /smh Next question on the application, how many pets do you have!!!
Give them nothing and laugh when they strike. Idiots. Union idiocy at its finest... "we want more, more, more and more than that next year.
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