- Apple said in a memo that it will raise base pay for retail workers to $22 an hour.
- The pay raise comes amid a unionization push among Apple's retail employees.
- Apple's leadership has pushed back at workers' collective-bargaining efforts.
Apple is boosting starting pay for its retail employees.
In a memo sent to employees on Wednesday, the company announced it would be increasing base pay for retail employees from $20 to $22 an hour. The Wall Street Journal and CNBC viewed the memo.
Starting salaries for corporate workers will also increase, CNBC reported the company as saying.
Some workers will see their pay increase in July, the Journal reported.
"Supporting and retaining the best team members in the world enables us to deliver the best, most innovative, products and services for our customers," an Apple spokesperson told the Journal. "This year as part of our annual performance review process, we're increasing our overall compensation budget."
Apple did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
In recent weeks, Apple's retail employees have been mobilizing to unionize. There are union drives in at least six stores, Vice reported in April. Apple store workers in a mall in Atlanta, Georgia, will be the first to hold a union election on June 2, according to the Verge. Some of these workers are saying that organizing can help them ask for higher salaries in the face of rising costs of living.
Apple's planned $22 hourly wage is unlikely to satisfy some of these groups. Fruit Stand Workers United (FSWU), which is organizing unionization efforts at Apple's store in New York City's Grand Central Terminal, is seeking a minimum of $30 for all workers, it said on its website.
"Year over year, the cost of living in New York City has not kept pace with our wages. Meanwhile, Apple has grown to be the most valuable company in the world. Why should its retail workers live precariously?" FSWU said. FSWU didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Apple's leadership has urged employees to consider the risks of unionizing
Apple's leadership has pushed back on employees' collective-bargaining efforts.
A top executive told Apple's retail workers to think about the risks of unionization, Bloomberg and Vice reported, citing a recording that was circulated on Wednesday. The message was sent to 58,000 retail employees, per the outlets.
In the six-minute message, Deirdre O'Brien, the company's senior vice president of retail and people, said unions would complicate Apple's relationship with its employees, the outlets reported.
"We have a relationship that's based on an open, collaborative and direct engagement, which I feel could fundamentally change if a store is represented by a union under a collective bargaining agreement," O'Brien said, according to Vice.
According to labor advocates, O'Brien's argument is one way employers try to push back on unionization efforts, Insider reported on Wednesday.
Apple also sent talking points to store managers that outlined how to rebut workers' unionization efforts, Vice reported on May 13. The list told managers to let workers know that there would be "less attention to merit" if their store unionized, per the report.
Apple is not the only big tech company to reconsider in recent weeks how much it pays its employees. Amazon recently rolled out its biggest compensation overhaul; some employees started receiving their new salaries last month, but some employees said it wasn't enough to combat inflation. Microsoft was reportedly also considering giving out big pay raises to stop employees from leaving.