Apple Reaches Equal Pay For All Their Employees

It seems Apple has finally reached pay equity for all of their employees, including underrepresented minorities and women.

Walk into any of Apple’s stores. What are you greeted by? Yes, large, glass doors that openly display the vastness of the store. What else? Yes, a substantial, eclectic selection of high-end gadgets such as iPhones, iPads, and Macs. What else? Yes, a sea of people huddled around the various iDevices and Macs. What do you notice about these people? Yes, there is an alarming amount of children playing around on iPhones and iPads.

What else? Yes, there is a surprising number of elders asking rudimentary questions, taking up your oh so precious time. What else? Yes, a small group of them—the elite, if you will—are clad in Apple’s trademark T-shirt or sweatshirt. And what do you notice about these people? Yes, a good number of them are white. What else? Yes, a significant number of them are male. What else? Yes, there is a lack of diversity amongst Apple’s staff.

Therein lies the problem: Apple is notorious for its lack of diversity and inclusiveness, and CEO Tim Cook is aware of this.

Back in 2015, CNN Money reported, “Apple, like the majority of the tech world, is a male-dominated company. Seven out of ten Apple employees are men, and virtually the entire senior leadership team is male.”

Later in the report, Cook claims, “I think it’s our fault—’our’ meaning the whole tech community. I think in general we haven’t done enough to reach out and show young women that it’s cool to do it and how much fun it can be.”

Interestingly, Tim Cook calls this underrepresentation “solvable,” and Apple may have finally cracked the code.

According to Apple’s recent report, “We’ve achieved pay equity in the United States for similar roles and performance. Women earn one dollar for every dollar male employees earn. And underrepresented minorities earn one dollar for every dollar white employees earn.”

Named “Inclusion & Diversity,” this report delivers some shocking and relieving statistics on what’s currently happening and what Apple is doing to lessen the situation.

As noted in the report, 54 percent of Apple’s new hires are more diverse than their current employees. The infographic just below this percentage breaks down the number: 24 percent of new hires are Asian, 13 percent are Hispanic, 13 percent are black, four percent are multiracial, and one percent are “other,” totaling to 54 percent. Compare that to the 46 percent of them who are white, and you’ll start to notice an exasperating problem: Apple is primarily a white-dominated company. Something more disappointing is that 56 percent of current employees are white. Compare this to 19 percent of current employees who are Asian, 12 percent who are Hispanic, 9 percent who are black, 2 percent who are multiracial, and 1 percent who are “other.” Again, this is quite disheartening.

Another rather frustrating statistic is the overall Global Gender analysis of Apple’s company over the last three years. Back in 2014, a staggering 70 percent of men dominated the company compared to a measly 30 percent of women. In 2015, 69 percent of men dominated the company compared to 31 percent of women. Although we’re just a little more than halfway through the 2016 year, 68 percent of men dominated the company compared to 32 percent of women. Clearly, there is progress, but we’re talking about 1 percent per year. That is not enough to recompense for the years of non-diversity.

Apple Store employees are diverse, but their Silicon Valley co-workers lag behind https://t.co/7cwhhjlGZX pic.twitter.com/veyZlAcgiY

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) August 4, 2016

Apple proudly displays “We want Apple to be a reflection of the world around us” on the report’s page. Well, while we can commend them for making progress, there is still a long way to go. I suppose we can revel in the fact that at Apple, men and women of all backgrounds now get paid the same for the same performance. The same can’t be said at competitions like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others.

You can read Apple’s report in full here.

[Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images]