Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–69 of 69 posts

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#61

Post by toyg »

nanijoe wrote: post #3

For me , here's the key paragraph from the article: "By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay — well above the minimum wage of $7.25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Lululemon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, 401(k) contributions and the chance to buy…

That might be the case in the US, i can assure you nobody outside the US can access those programs today (and even among US employees, last i checked, most were not allowed). Considering the amount of people employed abroad by these two...

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#62

Post by jinushaun »

lucasjans wrote: post #41

I think the majority of us are missing the point. "Good" American jobs are hard to come by. No longer can unskilled retail sales people make a living wage, even at Apple. Glad I work in tech.

It scares me to think how many more jobs in the future will no longer have living wages. Retail used to be a living wage job long ago.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#63

Post by DannyBee »

toyg wrote: post #12
nanijoe wrote: post #3

For me , here's the key paragraph from the article: "By the standards of retailing, Apple offers above average pay — well above the minimum wage of $7.25 and better than the Gap, though slightly less than Lululemon, the yoga and athletic apparel chain, where sales staff earn about $12 an hour. The company also offers very good benefits for a retailer, including health care, 401(k) contributions and the chance to buy…

For comparison, companies like Oracle and IBM don't offer "the chance to buy company stock" even to senior techies and consultants, nor do they offer any real discount on their own products anymore.

When i worked at IBM 6 years go, there was absolutely an employee stock purchase program. I would be highly surprised if this had changed.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#65

Post by scarmig »

seunosewa wrote: post #60
orbitingpluto wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take it you're an exceptional salesperson. But the problem with your argument is that most people aren't exceptional. "Most people" is the very definition of normal. And normal people deserve a living wage, especially if they're working for the most profitable company in history.

Nobody deserves anything.

I assume that if the government were to expropriate all the capital owned by shareholders of Apple, you wouldn't be out there saying that they deserve to keep it?

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#67

Post by panthera »

temphn wrote: post #49
GigabyteCoin wrote: post #9

This article starts out with a fallacy that immediately made me stop reading: Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. No. The ~$3M dollars that apple spends on advertising daily ( http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Apple-products-guru-m... ) are what put Jordan Golson in the position of seeing $750,000 worth of purchases be made in front of his cash regis…

Meta comment: The New York Times has really got a burr up its shorts about Apple these days, what with this piece and its "iEconomy" articles. Yet the NYT's market cap is only $1B: https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:NYT The Times wouldn't have attacked Apple like this if Jobs were still alive. For that matter, after the first negative NYT article came out, he might have simply bought the NYT for $1B and…

> After all, the NYT isn't writing exposes on Carlos Slim Helu, who owns an 8% stake.

Amusingly, the NYT reporters like to bite the hand that feeds them:

nytimes.com/2009/02/16/business/media/16slim.html?pagewanted=all

To wit:

"Notoriously thin-skinned, he does not have to pick up the phone and bellow at those who publish and broadcast something he does not like. His vast resources often translate into less-than-critical coverage.

Mr. Slim declined through his spokesman and son-in-law, Arturo Elias, to be interviewed for this article."

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#68

Post by rapattack »

Any way you look at it, Apple employees are simply not getting their fare share of the company’s profits. Apple asks their employees to know and do above and beyond what most retailers ask, and the NYT just showed we can get a bigger percentage of profits selling yoga pants. Apple employees deserve better. Just 1% commission would completely transform our paychecks, and the only way the company will give us what we deserve is if Apple workers come together to demand what we deserve.

Get connected to other Apple employees who want to see change by “Liking” the Retail Action Project on Facebook (www.facebook.com/retailactionproject), calling us at 646.490.5925, or emailing us at info@retailactionproject.org.

Re: Apple Stores’ Army, Long on Loyalty but Short on Pay

#69

Post by napierzaza »

I don't get it.

Apple is not Best Buy, so comparing the per-retail-employee profit is completely broken. Apple staffs engineers, manufacturers, designers etc etc etc AND they also have retail stores. They are doing a lot more than just staffing some shops.

They also do a large amount of sales online, they also make sales in places like Best Buy or university computer stores and independents. So I imagine that would have to be removed from the equation if you wanted to compare them to a retailer.

They also design and sell software as well as get a cut of stuff from the app store, iTunes Music, Books, movie rentals and a whole lot of other things. So can we remove that from the tally too?

So really trying to compare them to a vanilla retailer is a big mistake. Also like many have said

Besides, if they pay above market, they pay above market. I don't see how they should be paying six figures for what is an entry level job.

Post reply on HN