Apple treats its domestic employees like cattle too

[Fpqxz]

From the NY Times

Worldwide, its stores sold $16 billion in merchandise.

But most of Apple’s employees enjoyed little of that wealth. While consumers tend to think of Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as the company’s heart and soul, a majority of its workers in the United States are not engineers or executives with hefty salaries and bonuses but rather hourly wage earners selling iPhones and MacBooks.

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.

This is a rather long article, it also talks about how the tech boom has really only furthered the lower-paying retail sector jobs.  But I recommend you read it, whether you are an Apple user or not.

[SpaceProg]

Eh... name a big company that DOESN'T treat it's domestic sector employees like cattle. 

* SpaceProg is cynical today

[Her3tiK]

Wait... you mean Apple is literally a cult, it's not just a joke?

Color me surprised.

[shykid]

Sounds just like Scientology. Hyperwealthy bigwigs making themselves even richer using wage slavery to exploit their carefully brainwashed followers.

[Iczerfour]

not surprised..

[Morgenleoht]

Colour me surprised? *snark*

[Sylvana]

Eh... name a big company that DOESN'T treat it's domestic sector employees like cattle. 

* SpaceProg is cynical today

I can't think of any. While it mentions the 30000 of the 43000 who are treated like normal retail slaves, what about the remaining 13000 who are not?

[TheL]

On the plus side, at least they're earning $25,000/year.  Most retail jobs pay minimum wage.  If you assume a 40-hour work week every week of the year, that only comes out to $15,080/year (going by Federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr).

So either they're paying employees a good bit more than minimum wage (yay!) or they're giving a lot of overtime pay (yay for obeying the law, boo for making employees work overtime).  Either way, Apple's a shitty place to work, but not as shitty as Wal-Mart.

</devil's advocate>