Apple Said to Raise Salary of Its US Retail Employees Effective This Month

Apple is raising the pay of many US retail employees effective this month, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The hikes range from 2 percent to 10 percent, depending on store location and role, and will go to sales staff, including Genius Bar technical staff and some senior hourly workers, the report said, adding that the raises to not apply to all employees. Apple is expanding its retail operations, betting that a combination of strategies developed before and during COVID-19 will make its stores more popular than ever.

Last year, Apple reportedly paid one-time bonuses of as much as $1,000 (roughly Rs. 75,700) to store employees ahead of the busy holiday season.

Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The pay of its chief executive, Tim Cook, in 2021 was nearly $100 million (roughly Rs. 760 crore) thanks to stock awards, or about 1,447 times that of the average employee.

Apple recently introduced a new feature that will allow businesses to accept credit card and digital payments with just a tap on their iPhones, bypassing hardware systems such as Block's Square terminals.

The feature, to be launched later this year, will use near field communications (NFC) technology for making all kinds of payments, including between iPhones, Apple said on Tuesday. The tech giant added that it would not know what was being purchased or who was buying it, stressing on the services privacy feature.

Fintech services Stripe and Shopify Point will be the first to offer the “Tap to Pay” feature to business customers in the spring of 2022 in the US, the company said in a statement.

“Whether you're a salesperson at an internet-first retailer or an individual entrepreneur, you can soon accept contactless payments on a device that's already in your pocket: your iPhone,” said Billy Alvarado, Stripe's chief business officer.

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