USA: Apple increases minimum wage for employees in Apple stores

Employees at Apple can look forward to a salary increase in many areas. This is due to the increase in the minimum wage, which the employees’ union was able to push through. Employees in U.S. Apple stores are now entitled to a minimum wage of at least $22.

Apple increases hourly wage

May 25, 2022 was probably a very joyful day for all employees in Apple stores in the United States. Namely, on this day Apple announced to its employees that they would like to increase the hourly wage. However, this did not come about on a whim. Instead, the pressure from the unions was no longer bearable. This emerges from a report in the Financial Times. And the increase is definitely not without. From 20 US dollars so far, the minimum wage is now to rise to 22 US dollars. If Apple’s words are to be believed, it seems that not only the workforce in the USA itself will benefit from this. Salary increases will also be noticeable outside the USA. Apple itself sells its salary increase as a sensible consequence of the “annual performance review process”.

This apparently showed that an increase in the total budget available for compensation was possible without any problems. However, this seems to be the usual marketing-speak. After all, it would be a very big coincidence that the broad-based salary increase coincides with the salary increases demanded by unions, of all things. If you consider that the legal minimum wage in the U.S. is $6.35, Apple’s pay is more than fair. But the workforce is still dissatisfied with the company’s gigantic success. Some unions are calling for a minimum wage of 30 US dollars. At the present time, however, this still seems utopian.

Pay is not the only point of contention

But the focus of trade union work is not only on pay. In the view of many Apple employees, the general working conditions should also be urgently revised. Here, as with many other companies, the issue of home offices plays a major role. After many employees got used to the advantages of a home office in the course of the Corona pandemic, they do not see that this should now end again. If Apple has its way, however, this should already take place on May 23, 2022. Then the tech company wanted to reintroduce compulsory presence at the workplace for three days a week for its employees. We wait with bated breath to see whether the trade unionists will also be able to take action against the compulsory office hours.