COMP NEWS – Apple employees are getting bonuses of up to $1000 this holiday season, depending on when they were hired.

The iPhone maker will give $1,000 to retail staff hired before March 31, while anyone who joined after that date will receive $500, according to people familiar with the situation. New workers for the holiday shopping season will get $200, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. The payouts also will go to AppleCare and online sales workers as well.

 

The bonuses will be an unusual perk since Apple rarely gives companywide payouts. The last major one was $2,500 worth of restricted stock units in 2018. That bonus followed tax changes allowing Apple to bring back cash from offshore accounts at a lower cost. The new bonuses will be issued via cash in paychecks, rather than as stock units, the people said.

The bonuses come on the heels of some unrest within Apple, both internally and externally.

Still, some workers see the bonuses as an acknowledgment of growing unrest among both retail and corporate staff, according to the people. Employees have complained about pay equity and other concerns at the Cupertino, California-based technology giant, with two high-profile cases getting investigated by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board.

 

At the companywide meeting with employees last week, Apple addressed questions about pay equity and a new anti-abortion law in Texas. Apple said it resolves pay gaps when it finds them, and that it was monitoring the situation in Texas to see how it could help.

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