Why Is Apple Hiking Pay For Its Retail Store Employees?

Apple Inc.'s AAPL retail store workers are in for a windfall, as Cupertino is reportedly raising pay for them.

What Happened: Apple announced the pay hikes this week during store briefings and meetings with individual employees, Bloomberg reported, citing people with the knowledge of the matter.

The pay revisions are applicable primarily to employees, who have been with the company since the pre-pandemic period. It is meant to normalize their pay with that of the recent hires, the report said.

The raises range from 2% to 10% depending on a host of factors such as store location and role, and will take effect in February, Bloomberg indicated. The pay hikes are separate from the annual raises the company gives in October, coinciding with the end of Apple's fiscal year in September, it added.

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Why It's Important: The revisions, according to the report, will be a consolation for employees, who are dealing with yet another challenging year.

The U.S. job market is seeing a tightening. The January non-farm payroll report released earlier this month showed that the economy added a robust 467,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained almost unchanged at 4%. Inflation is ticking up, with consumer price inflation hitting a 40-year high of 7.5% in January.

These factors make retention a tough proposition for companies.

Apple has had issues with store employees, who have complained about tough conditions at the work place. The revisions will likely mitigate disgruntlement among employees.

In September, the company paid a one-time bonus of $1,000 for store workers hired before March 2021 and $500 for the ones hired after that date, Bloomberg said.

Apple's revenues climbed 11% year-over-year to a record $123.9 billion in the December quarter.

Apple closed Friday's session down 2.02% to $168.64.

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Photo: Courtesy of distan bach on Flickr