Can Apple afford to pay its employees more? Or is Apple broke?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Glasgow Apple Store Employees to Become First UK Branch to Unionize
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
What has Australia produced except mining its natural resources and being a place where rich Hong Kong/Chinese people go?
Close the store down. I support that. Unfortunately, Apple won't because the PR hit they'd take would be far greater than the benefit of closing down the store.
Why does Apple need to pay them more if there are people willing to take the place of those leaving?
Heck, you can send the union your own money. Or are you broke?
Ooh, you sound so tough and macho! In your own head. In reality you're revealing how useless you'd be in business.
Regardless of company profits, how much should an entry level retail employee earn?
Most people here just post nothing blurbs like "Apple should pay more" well exactly how much more? At what point is the company paying too much for an entry level position?
Most people here just post nothing blurbs like "Apple should pay more" well exactly how much more? At what point is the company paying too much for an entry level position?
That's funny. Paying someone more than they're worth is good business?
Tell us what business you run that is as successful as Apple's.
These are the same people who will complain about an iPhone costing $30 more MSRP.
So you know what Apple employees are worth? I'd bet a tax-dodging, Chinese sweatshop-loving company like Apple is underpaying them and taking advantage of them.
Is paying them *less* than they're worth good business? Who is deciding on what they're worth, in this instance? Can you replace trained employees who are knowledgable about Apple's products with people who aren't, without a loss of service and quality of customer experience? You're making an awful lot of very unstable assumptions here, all under the guise of "the market" sorting everything out for you. not sure you've opened a newspaper (or a window) recently, but that market of yours isn't exactly having the best of times.
Not at all, see my post #22
The market will decide. If you are under-paying or not treating employees well they will begin to look for other employment. If they find a greener pasture they will leave but if they don't they may just have to realize that they can't have everything and their current employer isn't that bad.
Again, bad idea. Always strive to keep good people. However there does come a point where you are just paying too much either in wage or benefits. Why do you think so many major cities are saddled with crippling retirement benefit packages? Because unions couldn't negotiate wage increases to they got retirement benefits that some politician knew wouldn't kick in until they were long out of office.
Open a newspaper? LOL. At least in the US there are "help wanted" signs everywhere and even convenience store signs and ads contain "signing bonuses" for entry level employees. Base hourly rates are up, etc. Where employees run into trouble is when business aren't hiring and there are more potential employees than available jobs. In this case only do companies start to jettison "seasoned" staff and look for less costly replacements.
I work in sales and my customers employ mostly entry level retail folks. My customers #1 complaint is that they cannot hire good people despite offering a significant better wage than pre-covid. Many new hires quit after only a couple of days after they learn that they actually have to work and not just stand around staring at their phones, speaks volumes about our upcoming workforce.
Last edited:
They are worth the intersection of the price that an employer is willing to pay an employee and the price that an employee is willing to work for. I presume that you are neither the employee nor the employee. If so, you have no defined role in the worker/employer agreement, the free market price for their employment. Assuming you are one of the employees in question, negotiate a higher price to stay and, if you can’t, leave. You aren’t a slave that is being compelled to remain with your employer.
Last edited:
Staff at Apple Glasgow are earning £12 an hour, well short of the UK average and a pathetic rate considering Apple is the richest tech company in the world. A private cleaner in the UK will charge more than that.
That tells me that Apple should be bleeding staff and have high turnover as employees have much better options to turn to.
Is it because you are comparing their hourly rate to the overall UK average wage versus the UK average for entry level retail employees?
Wait, what? £24k/year for doing hee haw, at least they all seem to be when I’m in store. Coupled with a generous discount allowance it’s not all bad.
Strap a headset on them & get them to call centre on less pay, then let’s see them complain, muppets.
Strap a headset on them & get them to call centre on less pay, then let’s see them complain, muppets.
What is the uk average, £30k. Not everyone can be above it or close to it for obv reasons, prices in Scotland are generally cheaper across the board.
They are for the folk that work in the store!
Don't get me wrong, I get paid less than them, but that's my choice. They might have to attend a pre-shift brief & all that stuff, working at short notice, but it's far far from the worst that's out there I suspect.
Every time I'm in store everyone's just chatting to everyone else & you have to hunt someone down, even their product knowledge is sub-par to what it used to be. For troubleshooting it's just plug a device in & the test runs.
It isn't a skilled role as to what it used to be & I don't believe that they have sales targets.
Last edited:
So why would people work there? Shouldn’t they just quit and get work as private cleaners?
Ask them, dear. I don't work for Apple. But I would hazard a guess they wouldn't be seeking to unionise so much if they were paid properly and treated right.
Only Apple knows exactly how much to pay them. They're the ones who receive job applications and hire these workers.
They know how much these workers are worth.
Unions in the UK have achieved so much for the average employee. Well done to them.
Shame on Apple for trying to discourage it elsewhere.
Shame on Apple for trying to discourage it elsewhere.
If Apple gave every one of their worldwide employees $10k extra a year, it would equate to 0.004% of their annual turnover.
Apple is lowballing their retail staff and discipline them for discussing salaries. This is because once they do discuss it, they realise how there is no continuity in the pay levels and some new staff are being paid more than those with years of service.
Apple's opposition to unionisation tells you all you need to know.
Apple is lowballing their retail staff and discipline them for discussing salaries. This is because once they do discuss it, they realise how there is no continuity in the pay levels and some new staff are being paid more than those with years of service.
Apple's opposition to unionisation tells you all you need to know.