Apple reduces raises given to retail employees for 2023

The smartphone market and general economy have slowed down post-pandemic, and Apple is reacting with a lower raise for employees in 2023 versus 2022.

The pandemic created an inflated consumer economy, especially around consumer electronics. Devices like the iPhone and iPad sold fast, providing more profits for Apple to trickle down to employees via bonuses and raises.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has shifted back to standard raise amounts in 2023 amid slowing economic conditions. Retail employees are seeing raises around 2% to 5% in 2023, which is much less than the 2% to 10% raises handed out in 2022.

Raises are being applied to retail and AppleCare technical support. Apple applies raises during company employee reviews, which begin in September and run into early October.

In 2022, the higher raises were accompanied by a boost to minimum wages to $22 from $20. These benefits were given in a year when unionization efforts were fresh, and labor shortages were a threat.

The report notes that 2023 has seen unionization efforts cool off, plus less overall inflation and a shrinking smartphone market. These factors likely contributed to the reduced raises.

Apple's decision to reduce pay raises arrives as iPhone 15 goes on sale. Initial reports suggest there is a high demand for iPhone 15 and the company won't be hurting when earnings are shared for the quarter.

7 Comments

ilarynx 125 comments · 15 Years

About 1 year ago

Oh FFS. Who the heck is running Apple's retail business? The ghost of Jack Welch? This is an idiotic, myopic, 19th century management approach that has guaranteed long term negative return.

Almost nobody goes to an Apple Store not already knowing what they are going to buy. iPhones aren't an impulse buy as is gum at the grocery store checkout line. Deirdre and every other manager between retail and VP takes similar percentage cuts to raises.

https://www.apple.com/leadership/deirdre-obrien/

At what point did Deirdre sell her soul for a 1.2% return on her stock options? She should already be out on her can for her moronic, ham-fisted approach to store unions. When Microsoft does a better job with its employees, you know something is screwed up.

macxpress 5910 comments · 16 Years

About 1 year ago

ilarynx said:

Oh FFS. Who the heck is running Apple's retail business? The ghost of Jack Welch? This is an idiotic, myopic, 19th century management approach that has guaranteed long term negative return.

Almost nobody goes to an Apple Store not already knowing what they are going to buy. iPhones aren't an impulse buy as is gum at the grocery store checkout line. Deirdre and every other manager between retail and VP takes similar percentage cuts to raises.

https://www.apple.com/leadership/deirdre-obrien/

At what point did Deirdre sell her soul for a 1.2% return on her stock options? She should already be out on her can for her moronic, ham-fisted approach to store unions. When Microsoft does a better job with its employees, you know something is screwed up.

Sorry but most companies give out raises based on sales. Does it suck, yes, but it's what most companies do. Where I works thats how it's done too. If the company has a good year you get a better raise and bonus. If not then well its flat.

jimh2 661 comments · 8 Years

About 1 year ago

Those who are star performers will get raises outside of this default range. Another maneuver companies make is to promote someone to a higher position. They get a wage increase but it is not considered a raise.

dewme 5739 comments · 10 Years

About 1 year ago

macxpress said:

ilarynx said:

Oh FFS. Who the heck is running Apple's retail business? The ghost of Jack Welch? This is an idiotic, myopic, 19th century management approach that has guaranteed long term negative return.

Almost nobody goes to an Apple Store not already knowing what they are going to buy. iPhones aren't an impulse buy as is gum at the grocery store checkout line. Deirdre and every other manager between retail and VP takes similar percentage cuts to raises.

https://www.apple.com/leadership/deirdre-obrien/

At what point did Deirdre sell her soul for a 1.2% return on her stock options? She should already be out on her can for her moronic, ham-fisted approach to store unions. When Microsoft does a better job with its employees, you know something is screwed up.

Sorry but most companies give out raises based on sales. Does it suck, yes, but it's what most companies do. Where I works thats how it's done too. If the company has a good year you get a better raise and bonus. If not then well it’s flat.

Yep. While it’s great to get bonuses tied to specific corporate goals, in many cases those doing the work cannot directly influence all of the performance targets in any way, shape, or form. This especially hurts when there is a minimum threshold for each target and missing any single target cancels out the whole thing and you get nothing after putting in 70 hour work weeks for a year.

But as others have said, non union companies don’t usually give out the same percentage increase to everyone so there can be a benefit to merit. However, some companies put a dollar cap on the total amount of the increases so you end up in the classical zero sum game of having to dole out the increase when you have a large disparity in salaries in the same cost center. This can lead to higher paid employees receiving a smaller percentage increase.

I’m a big proponent of profit sharing, as most people are. But I can’t think of anyone who would support loss sharing.

These issues aren’t as cut & dry or as simple as they may appear from a distance. But as long as you’re an employee you have to deal with it.

Btw, I worked @ GE during the Neutron Jack regime. It was very interesting work but the business I was part of was very difficult to control your own destiny because it had a lot of political and DoD ties. So Jack sold us off to what was at the time one of our subcontractors who was one-third our size. Whatever. But I always enjoyed reading Jack’s personal writings about leadership styles that he’d put in the annual report.