By DAVID SEGAL | Published: June 23, 2012 | The New York Times
Last year, during his best three-month stretch, Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of
computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. It was a performance that might have called
for a bottle of Champagne — if that were a luxury Mr. Golson could have afforded.
“I was earning $11.25 an hour,” he said. “Part of me was thinking, ‘This is great. I’m an Apple fan, the
store is doing really well.’ But when you look at the amount of money the company is making and then
you look at your paycheck, it’s kind of tough.”
America’s love affair with the smartphone has helped create tens of thousands of jobs at places like
Best Buy and Verizon Wireless and will this year pump billions into the economy.
Within this world, the Apple Store is the undisputed king, a retail phenomenon renowned for impeccable
design, deft service and spectacular revenues. Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=24retail-ss-slide-CMAP-articleLarge.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/24retail-ss-slide-CMAP-articleLarge.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth. About 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple
employees in this country work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, and many of them
earn about $25,000 a year. They work inside the world’s fastest growing industry, for the most valuable
company, run by one of the country’s most richly compensated chief executives, Tim Cook. Last year, he
received stock grants, which vest over a 10-year period, that at today’s share price would be worth more
than $570 million.
And though Apple is unparalleled as a retailer, when it comes to its lowliest workers, the company is a
reflection of the technology industry as a whole. 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.
But Apple is not selling polo shirts or yoga pants. Divide revenue by total number of employees and you
find that last year, each Apple store employee — that includes non-sales staff like technicians and people
stocking shelves — brought in $473,000. These are sales rates for a consulting company and not
your typical Electronics and appliance stores who post $206,000 in revenue per employee, according to the latest
figures from the National Retail Federation.
Even Apple, it seems, has recently decided it needs to pay its workers more. Last week, four months after
The New York Times first began inquiring about the wages of its store employees, the company started to
inform some staff members that they would receive substantial raises. An Apple spokesman confirmed the
raises but would not discuss their size, timing or impetus, nor who would earn them.
Last year, during his best three-month stretch, Jordan Golson sold about $750,000 worth of
computers and gadgets at the Apple Store in Salem, N.H. It was a performance that might have called
for a bottle of Champagne — if that were a luxury Mr. Golson could have afforded.
“I was earning $11.25 an hour,” he said. “Part of me was thinking, ‘This is great. I’m an Apple fan, the
store is doing really well.’ But when you look at the amount of money the company is making and then
you look at your paycheck, it’s kind of tough.”
America’s love affair with the smartphone has helped create tens of thousands of jobs at places like
Best Buy and Verizon Wireless and will this year pump billions into the economy.
Within this world, the Apple Store is the undisputed king, a retail phenomenon renowned for impeccable
design, deft service and spectacular revenues. Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise.
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=24retail-ss-slide-CMAP-articleLarge.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/24retail-ss-slide-CMAP-articleLarge.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth. About 30,000 of the 43,000 Apple
employees in this country work in Apple Stores, as members of the service economy, and many of them
earn about $25,000 a year. They work inside the world’s fastest growing industry, for the most valuable
company, run by one of the country’s most richly compensated chief executives, Tim Cook. Last year, he
received stock grants, which vest over a 10-year period, that at today’s share price would be worth more
than $570 million.
And though Apple is unparalleled as a retailer, when it comes to its lowliest workers, the company is a
reflection of the technology industry as a whole. 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.
But Apple is not selling polo shirts or yoga pants. Divide revenue by total number of employees and you
find that last year, each Apple store employee — that includes non-sales staff like technicians and people
stocking shelves — brought in $473,000. These are sales rates for a consulting company and not
your typical Electronics and appliance stores who post $206,000 in revenue per employee, according to the latest
figures from the National Retail Federation.
Even Apple, it seems, has recently decided it needs to pay its workers more. Last week, four months after
The New York Times first began inquiring about the wages of its store employees, the company started to
inform some staff members that they would receive substantial raises. An Apple spokesman confirmed the
raises but would not discuss their size, timing or impetus, nor who would earn them.
