Misleading
Metrics:
The Truth Behind
Apple's Diversity Data
Apple Work Environment Statistics at a Glance
86%
of job growth for Black workers at Apple between 2014 and 2021 has been in either Sales or Admin Support roles
61%
of job growth for Hispanic workers at Apple between 2014 and 2021 has been in either Sales or Admin Support roles
187%
of job growth for White workers at Apple between 2014 and 2021 has been in the First/Mid Officials & Managers and Professionals job categories
Introduction
It’s hard to think of a company in modern times more lauded than Apple as a symbol of American ingenuity and innovation, or a company that has reached the same zenith financially or for cult-like adoration of its products. In many ways, Apple is one of America’s most important exports, cultural signifiers, and bellwethers for employment standards in tech and retail jobs, which make up the majority of its 164,000-person workforce. [1]
For all its seemingly forward-thinking inventiveness, Apple has left behind its retail workforce in the Company’s race to a $3 trillion valuation. [2] Apple retail workers across the country are organizing with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and other unions to improve wages, working conditions, and equity outcomes at the world’s richest company. Apple has responded by withholding benefits from unionized stores, conducting coercive captive audience meetings, and hiring the same anti-union law firm as its brand-conscious cousin Starbucks, which is also facing a reckoning as thousands [3] of its frontline retail workers are standing up and saying we deserve better. [4]
Nearly 40% (or two-fifths) of Apple’s workforce is employed in the Company’s retail operations. [5]
Apple’s retail strategy is key to the company’s bottom line and brand success. Nearly 40% (or two-fifths) of Apple’s workforce is employed in the Company’s retail operations.[5] The sleek, reservation-required Genius Bar, which has so fundamentally shifted the in-person customer experience, is central to Apple’s ability to get devices into customers’ hands and keep them inside the company’s enclosed ecosystem. Even as recently as 2021, while COVID-19 saw other retailers downsizing, Apple recommitted to its retail strategy by opening more retail stores and adding a broader array of in-store classes to bring customers in contact with Apple more frequently.[6]
The centrality of the retail worker to Apple’s continued success should encourage the company to respond constructively to workers who are seeking to form unions and engage in collective bargaining. Labor rights supporters are watching to see if Apple will truly seek to rectify the inequities present on the retail store floor and behind the scenes in its decision-making processes, in partnership with empowered retail workers.
This report seeks to illuminate several key concerns raised by workers and offer recommendations to Apple about how to address worker grievances and live up to its credo. The report combines data from worker surveys and interviews, company disclosures, news reports, and other sources to evaluate Apple’s conduct and finds:
- According to Apple’s publicly-available EEO-1 data reported to the government [7]:
- As one moves up the corporate hierarchy at Apple, the workforce skews more heavily White male while Black and Hispanic representation drops off.
- 86% of job growth for Black workers at Apple between 2014 and 2021 has been in either Sales or Admin Support roles
- 61% of job growth for Hispanic workers at Apple between 2014 and 2021 has been in either Sales or Admin Support roles
- 187.2% of job growth for White workers at Apple between 2014 and 2021 has been in the First/Mid Officials & Managers and Professionals job categories, reflecting in part reductions in the number of White employees in lower-paid Sales positions [8]
- According to Apple’s own internal data:
- White workers have far greater representation in Retail Leadership than in the Retail workforce as a whole. This disparity has been present each year between 2014 and 2021. [9]
- On the other hand, Black, Hispanic, and Multiracial workers are underrepresented in Retail Leadership compared with the Retail workforce as a whole for each year between 2014 and 2021. [10] Apple has failed to translate its increasingly diverse Sales workforce into an equally diverse Retail Leadership.
- Various Apple work, handbook, and confidentiality rules tend to interfere with or prevent employees from exercising their rights to form a union and take collective action. [11]
- Apple executives have made statements that violated the National Labor Relations Act and Apple has held anti-union meetings wherein management made coercive statements. [12]
To live up to its credo and commitment to human rights, CWA urges Apple to commit to the following actions:
- Discontinue its relationship with anti-union labor firm Littler Mendelson or any other anti-union law firms, consultants, etc.
- Enact a true policy of neutrality toward union organizing efforts. Instead of forcing store managers to recite anti-union talking points, Apple should train managers to leave the conversation about joining a union to the workers themselves.
- Improve its Commitment to Human Rights policy by including the Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining language that is already present in its Supplier Code of Conduct.
Service industries now account for over three-fourths of the U.S. GDP. [13] The fight of the Apple retail worker is as much a fight for the modern American worker as it is for Apple workers themselves. Out of the coal mines and factories and onto the sales floor …
Productivity
By all accounts, Apple continues to be wildly successful and profitable.
In 2022, Apple’s Board signaled it views the Company’s stock as undervalued by approving a $90 billion stock buyback plan [14], a 5.5% increase from 2021’s share buyback plan [15]. Since 2018, the company has repurchased $388.4 billion of its common stock, indicating it believes returning cash to shareholders is the best use of these profits. [16]
The percentage of total net sales that come from Apple’s directly controlled distribution channels has consistently increased and in 2022, it reached 38%, the highest level since the company began tracking the metric in 2013. [17] According to the company, direct sales generally have higher associated gross margins than its indirect sales through its channel partners. [18]
Consistently valued at over $2 trillion, Apple has the highest productivity of any company on the planet. Any way you cut the Apple pie it’s clear that workers are making an outsized contribution to the abundance the company is enjoying when compared to what they are taking home in their paychecks.
Globally-speaking, revenue per employee stood at $2.4 million for 2022; up 29% since 2020.
Direct sales per employee was $913k in 2022; up 44% since 2020.
Net profit per employee was $608k in 2022; up 55% since 2020. [19]
Looking at just U.S. sales employees and U.S.-derived revenue, in 2021 revenue per sales employee was $6.35 million; up 36.6% since 2020. [20]
70%
a survey of 120 frontline retail workers found over 70% see the need for pay increases as a top priority
Despite its flush position, in early April, Apple announced that it would be eliminating roles in its corporate retail teams. [21] Further, a survey of 120 frontline retail workers conducted online by CWA in early 2023 found over 70% see the need for pay increases as a top priority. Since early 2020, the Consumer Price Index, which measures the average change over time in the prices paid for goods and services by urban consumers, has consistently climbed, reaching a peak increase in June 2022 of 9.1%, the largest increase in forty years. [22]
Given the disparity between Apple’s outsized profits and its inadequate investment in its workforce, it’s not surprising that Apple retail workers are organizing to gain bargaining power. Through collective bargaining, Apple could be required to share more of the fruits of its success with the workers responsible for direct sales and brand maintenance.
Racial Justice
Apple hired its first Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion in May 2017. Since that time, the role has been filled by three different people and Apple continues to struggle to make serious inroads on improving equity outcomes for underrepresented communities. [24]
" … we do not use the Federal Employer Information Report EEO-1 to measure progress ... " [23]
Apple pats itself on the back for its progress on diversity and inclusion, but the progress the company says it has made cannot be independently verified and seems to be determined based on an evaluation system of Apple’s own making.
A review of six years of Apple's publicly-available EEO-1 (Equal Employment Opportunity) data reveals as one moves up the corporate hierarchy at Apple, the workforce skews more heavily White male while Black and Hispanic representation drops off. [25] Since 2014, Apple has failed to achieve year over year increases in Black and Hispanic representation at the “Executive/Sr Officials & Mgrs”, “First/Mid Officials & Mgrs”, and “Professionals” levels of the company. Black Female representation at the “Executive/Sr Officials & Mgrs” level was actually worse in 2021 than it was in 2014 and Hispanic Female representation has remained consistent year over year at an embarrassing 0%.
Apple Executive and Senior Officials/Managers Racial Demographic Breakdown
Based on EEO-1 Data
In contrast, Apple has been successful year over year in increasing Black and Hispanic representation in its sales workforce, which are among the lowest paid roles in the company. The Company’s website on inclusion and diversity highlights key metrics Apple is using to track its “progress toward a more inclusive workforce” using data supplied by the company’s People team. [26] What this self-congratulation obscures is that while the number of Black workers at Apple has increased by 70.1% since 2014, 85.6% of those jobs have been in either Sales or Admin Support. [27]
86%
of job growth for Black workers at Apple between 2014 and 2021 has been in either Sales or Admin Support roles
Apple First/Mid Officials and Managers Racial Demographic Breakdown
Based on EEO-1 Data
61%
of job growth for Hispanic workers at Apple between 2014 and 2021 has been in either Sales or Admin Support roles
The number of Hispanic workers at Apple has increased by 93.1% since 2014 with 60.8% of those jobs being in either Sales or Admin Support. Racial disparity at Apple is crystallized when the same data reveals that 187.2% of the job growth for White workers between 2014 and 2021 has been in the First/Mid Officials & Managers and Professionals job categories. Job gains for White workers between 2014 and 2021 in the First/Mid Officials & Managers and Professionals categories has more than made up for White worker declines in the lower-paid Sales category, down 25% during that same time period.
The resistance that underrepresented groups face when trying to ascend the Apple retail hierarchy has serious implications for pay equity, with steeply increasing stock grants at higher managerial levels.
Apple Professionals Racial Demographic Breakdown
Based on EEO-1 Data
The resistance that underrepresented groups face when trying to ascend the Apple retail hierarchy has serious implications for pay equity, with steeply increasing stock grants at higher managerial levels.
“The system that Apple employs is trying to keep you within a band … but the reality was if you wanted to make more money you needed to get promoted, period.”
- Former Apple Retail Manager
“Most people didn’t know that Apple managers made bonuses and had stock equity in higher amounts. An average specialist employee for an annual performance review may receive a $1,500- $2,000 grant in Apple stock and that takes 3 years to vest. As a manager for my performance I could get anywhere from a $5k stock bonus up to $20k. A Senior Manager goes from $20k to $60k per year and then a Store Leader is at $150k. [...] And we got quarterly bonuses too. If stores hit goals we would get $750 to $2,500 per quarter.”
- Former Apple Retail Manager
“My market director has told me ‘When you come back to this store I already know your store’s numbers are going to be top of the market.’ I said so if that’s the case then why are we not compensated for that? Why do we not have a quarterly bonus? Why do we not have some kind of monthly bonus if you do meet these incentives [for] your numbers and your metrics?”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
Apple Sales Workers Racial Demographic Breakdown
Based on EEO-1 Data
The endurance of these inequalities at Apple does not happen in a vacuum or by accident. A survey conducted by CWA of 120 frontline retail workers conducted online in early 2023 found that two-thirds of respondents believed that they had experienced or witnessed discrimination, prejudice, or inequity at Apple. Interviews with former and current Apple employees illustrate this sentiment further:
“My store in particular does not like any strong black male voice in that store. … You’re treating us like second class citizens in this store. … We put in enough complaints to get employee relations to take two days out of the week to have interviews with about forty plus employees who had complaints against management and nothing has been done.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
“I would categorize [the] discrimination, prejudice and inequity as sort of like death by a thousand cuts.”
- Former Apple Retail Manager
“I have never gotten a clear answer as to why I’m not getting paid more for speaking an additional language. [...] The second I spoke Spanish to the janitor then you guys realized ‘Oh this person speaks Spanish’ and then started slamming me with Spanish speakers. […] There are other peers at work who don’t even speak Spanish because of the fear. They know Spanish, but because of the fear of them getting handed more customers they don’t speak. … you’re scared because you’re not going to get compensated for that work.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
Multiple Apple workers we spoke with for this report also described Apple’s retail career advancement process as vague, unclear, and rife with inconsistent feedback that they felt did nothing to help them advance into leadership roles and at worst could be contributing to negative outcomes in the retail hiring process for underrepresented groups.
“It’s [career advancement] a bit of a puzzle. It’s like playing wordle, you just have to guess the right letter and if you don’t then you don’t get through and then you try again but then the word changes … it can feel very arbitrary to an employee when they don’t see the inner workings and they’re just applying based on the job description and their experience and they get turned down five different times and each time [for] a different reason.”
- Former Apple Retail Manager
“Apple likes to go by these guidelines of some random form of metrics that we don’t even know about. … they don’t go by your monthly metrics, weekly metrics. Everything goes by your competencies and things that Apple just pulls out the clear blue and says ‘this is the way we get to this evaluation for you’. Not what you did on the floor. Not what you do daily. Not what you do monthly. Not what you do yearly.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
“That’s how I would describe navigating Apple’s career advancement system. It’s just super ambiguous to that person, to everyone, unless they open the gates for you and say, ‘here come on in’.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
“Endorsements while they’ve been retired as a formal process or pseudo formal process that is frowned upon now within Apple management the consensus agreement still exists … it is up to the individuals in the room to audit one another around whether they’re using [a] consensus view or not and there isn’t a sound system for that when it comes to selection and motives of that store team and their bias.”
- Former Apple Retail Manager
“There are people who were not top performers, but they spoke the lingo and they did really well code switching and they were able to present themselves in the ‘Apple way' and they got ahead faster.”
- Former Apple Retail Manager
“Although a lot of people may be really good at certain competencies, no one is good at all of them. It’s all about how these managers communicate your story to the Seniors [...] one of my coworkers described it as: ‘You just gotta make yourself a little more whiter.’”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
Lack of clear guidelines and evaluation criteria for promotion is disproportionately impacting Black and Hispanic retail workers, which makes collective bargaining in Apple retail stores a civil rights issue. Even Apple’s own carefully-curated data demonstrates that White workers have far greater representation in Retail Leadership than in the Retail workforce as a whole. This disparity has been present each year between 2014 and 2021. [28] On the other hand, Black, Hispanic, and Multiracial workers are underrepresented in Retail Leadership compared with the Retail workforce as a whole for each year between 2014 and 2021. [29] Apple has failed to translate its increasingly diverse Sales workforce into an equally diverse Retail Leadership.
Apple REtail Workforce by RAce (2014-2021)
Based on Apple’s Internal Data
Apple REtail Leadership by RAce (2014-2021)
Based on Apple’s Internal Data
In March 2022, 53.6% of Apple shareholders approved a proposal, advanced by the SOC Investment Group, Service Employees International Union, and Trillium Asset Management [30], that called on the company to undergo a third-party audit that would review its policies and provide recommendations on how to improve its civil rights impact suggesting that even the majority of its own investors believe Apple can improve its handling of diversity and inclusion. [31] Apple initially opposed the proposal, but a month later confirmed that it would go through with the measure. [32] While this is a meaningful first step, an audit is not the finish line for how to achieve equity at Apple.
53.6%
of Apple shareholders approved a proposal for the company to undergo a third-party civil rights audit
Labor Rights
“… Apple’s soul is our people.” [33]
In September 2020, following the vote of 40% of its shareholders in favor of a proposal to uphold and promote freedom of expression at the company [34] Apple released a 1,400-word pledge titled “Our Commitment to Human Rights”, its first ever public-facing policy document on the
topic. [35] In the four-page memo, Apple espouses its commitment to respecting the human rights of everyone and states that “At Apple and throughout our supply chain, we prohibit harassment, discrimination, violence, and retaliation of any kind …” [36] Less than three years into the execution of this framework Apple’s commitment reads thin.
Since 2022, CWA has been supporting workers at Apple to organize a union in order to win improvements including better wages, working conditions, and diversity and equity outcomes at the company. Very shortly after union organizing drives began at the company, Apple's Vice President of People and Retail Deirdre O’Brien was caught explicitly dissuading employees from joining a union in an internal video leaked [37] to media outlet The Verge. [38] In the past year alone, Apple has been investigated for seventeen unfair labor practice charges (ULPs) by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), eleven of which were filed by the CWA. [39] The NLRB Officials have substantiated several of these allegations and others remain under investigation.
In October 2022, the NLRB New York Regional Director issued a complaint against the company accusing it of interrogating staff at a store in New York City and discriminating against union supporters in enforcing a no-soliciting policy. [40]
In December 2022, the NLRB’s Atlanta Regional Director concluded that Apple held mandatory anti-union meetings at which time management made coercive statements. [41]
In January 2023, the NLRB general counsel’s office determined that “various work rules, handbook rules, and confidentiality rules” utilized by Apple “tend to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees” from exercising their rights to collective action. NLRB prosecutors also found merit in the allegation that statements and conduct by high-level Apple executives violated the National Labor Relations Act. [42]
In January 2023, after an investor coalition including NYC Comptroller Brad Lander [43] raised concerns about Apple’s reported anti-union conduct, [44] the company agreed to undergo an assessment of its compliance with its Human Rights Policy as it relates to workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in the U.S. by the end of the calendar year 2023. [45]
The following tactics that Apple has employed to stem union organizing are in clear violation of the spirit of its Commitment to Human Rights policy:
- April 2022: Hiring the notorious anti-union labor firm Littler Mendelson [46];
- May 2022: Circulating anti-union talking points to store leaders to use with employees stating that having a union at Apple could mean "less attention to merit” and “fewer opportunities” [47];
- October 2022: Withholding benefits for outside educational classes and health care from unionized stores [48];
- December 2022: Allegedly setting up a company-controlled labor organization for employees to join, which is unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act [49]
- April 2023: Rejecting employees’ reasonable proposals and stalling at the bargaining table in first contract negotiations at Apple’s unionized store in Towson, Maryland. For example, Apple rejected a proposal from the workers to establish a grievance procedure [50] despite a provision in the company’s Supplier Code of Conduct that “supplier shall accommodate Workers should they to express a desire for a Grievance mechanism …”); [51]
- April 2023: Managers holding meetings with staff members nationwide to “discuss the risks of unionization”. [52]
Apple’s ongoing anti-union campaign is further substantiated by a March 2023 online survey of over 120 Apple U.S. retail workers wherein 72% of respondents answered yes to the question “Has a supervisor ever suggested that there would be negative consequences for you or your coworkers, or that nothing would change, if you formed a union?”
“They’re union bashing. They don’t want you to do something that you should and have the right to do.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
“Our downloads were supposed to be about things that happened last night after closing or during the week or current focuses moving forward or numbers for the week … as soon as those stores were in talks of unionizing all of that halts the morning talks are just driven to unions … we’re just trying to understand what it meant by telling us unions are bad, but you have the right to unionize.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
““I’m getting treated very differently from the rest of my peers because I’m staying informed and that’s really all I’m doing. […] For me, I personally have felt more surveilled than anything. When I tell you that I feel as if there is a Senior Manager whose job now is solely to watch the cameras.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
“The second I started researching unions, getting more vocal, getting my own information they started rating me lower. So what does that mean for my pay? That means that my pay is going to go down just because I want to push for something that I know is going to mean well for a lot of people.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee
The two most recent ULPs filed by the CWA against Apple allege that the company illegally fired five workers from its Country Club Plaza store in Kansas City, Missouri and then had some of the fired workers sign a "Release of All Claims” that restricted their ability to speak out about labor issues. At the Memorial City store in Houston, TX, CWA has alleged that Apple individually interrogated workers regarding their support of the union.
Conclusion
Apple stakeholders are loudly and clearly asking the company to step up and fulfill its credo.
Publicly-available data and Apple’s internal data both confirm that underrepresented groups at Apple are unable to share equally in the company’s overwhelming and consistent bounty. Apple laments that this effort to improve equity outcomes “takes time” [54], but eight years have passed and in certain aspects the needle has barely moved for various underrepresented groups. Workers need concrete solutions now.
Apple did not intend for its Commitment to Human Rights policy to be a static, unchanging framework. The Board of Directors is responsible for “periodically reviewing the policy” and Apple’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel are tasked with implementation and ensuring progress. [55]
“When I was a younger kid, I used to be very bullied. … I was a small kid. It was the norm for me. I like to say that the Earth, the Universe, God, whatever we may believe in, they're giving me this second chance to stand up to a company and say ‘You’re not going to bully me. You’re not going to do this to me anymore.’ The same feelings that I had when I was in high school … where I felt isolated, when I felt like I couldn’t reach out for help, where I had anxiety before coming into the building … Whenever I had to explain why it was my fault as to why I’m getting bullied, it’s the same thing here at Apple. They’re using their position of power to intimidate people who all they want is to close the gap from 3 trillion dollars.”
- Current Apple Retail Employee [53]
Recommendations
Given that federal regulators and workers themselves have substantiated many allegations against Apple of illegal and unethical anti-union conduct, CWA urges the company “to make sure [Apple’s] progress is as meaningful and impactful as possible” [56] by committing to the following actions:
- Enact a true policy of neutrality toward union organizing efforts. Instead of forcing store managers to recite anti-union talking points, Apple should train managers to leave the conversation about joining a union to the workers themselves.
- Discontinue its relationship with anti-union labor firm Littler Mendelson or any other anti-union law firms, consultants, etc.
- Improve its Commitment to Human Rights policy by including the Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining language that is already present in its Supplier Code of Conduct.
Communications Workers of America
@CWAUnion
/CWAUnion
@CWAUnion
End Notes
1. Apple. United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2022. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/_10-K-2022-(As-Filed).pdf
2. Balu, N., and Randewich, N. Apple becomes first company to hit $3 million trillion market value, then slips. Reuters. January 4, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/apple-gets-closer-3-trillion-market-value-2022-01-03/
3. Union Election Data. Current Starbucks Statistics. https://unionelections.org/data/starbucks/
4. Khalid, A. Apple hired the same anti-union law firm as Starbucks: report. Engadget. April 22, 2022. https://www.engadget.com/apple-union-starbucks-cwa-cumberland-012024025.html
5. Albergott, R. Some U.S. Apple Store employees are working to unionize, part of a growing worker backlash. The Washington Post. February 18, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/18/apple-retail-stores-union-labor/
6. Nellis, S. Apple banks on physical stores as economies reopen, retail chief says. Reuters. June 24, 2021. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/apple-banks-physical-stores-economies-reopen-retail-chief-says-2021-06-24/
7. CWA was able to locate Apple’s EEO-1 data for the years 2021, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2015, and 2014. Apple. 2021 Employer Information Report EEO-1 Consolidated Report. https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2021-Consolidated-EEO-1-Certified.pdf ; Apple. 2020 Employer Information Report EEO-1 Consolidated Report. https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2020-Final-Certified-Apple-EEO-1-Report.pdf ; Apple. 2018 Employer Information Report Consolidated Report. https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2018-EEO-1-Consolidated-Report.pdf ; Fried, I. Apple's executive ranks are still overwhelmingly white and male. Vox. November 21, 2016. https://www.vox.com/2016/11/21/13707674/apple-diversity-executive-ranks-2016-eeoc
8. Apple. 2021 Employer Information Report EEO-1 Consolidated Report. https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2021-Consolidated-EEO-1-Certified.pdf ; Fried, I. Apple's executive ranks are still overwhelmingly white and male. Vox. November 21, 2016. https://www.vox.com/2016/11/21/13707674/apple-diversity-executive-ranks-2016-eeoc
9. Apple. Inclusion and Diversity. https://www.apple.com/diversity/
10. Apple. Inclusion and Diversity. https://www.apple.com/diversity/ ; Apple Retail Diversity Data from Apple's Diversity Page: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dxS1oKuQvPckdtKXN4mxalZNtrO5hpUsFbXMTB5SwZ4/edit#gid=962058545
11. Eidelson, J. Apple Executives Violated Worker Rights, Labor Officials Say. Bloomberg. January 30, 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-30/apple-executives-violated-worker-rights-us-labor-officials-say?srnd=technology-vp&leadSource=uverify%20wall
12. Eidelson, J. Apple's Labor Tactics in Atlanta Deemed Illegal by the NLRB (1). Bloomberg Law. December 5, 2022. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/apples-labor-tactics-in-atlanta-deemed-illegal-by-us-officials
13. The World Bank. Services, valued added (% of GDP) - United States. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.SRV.TOTL.ZS?end=2021&locations=US&start=1997&view=chart
14. Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2022. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/_10-K-2022-(As-Filed).pdf
15. Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2021. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2021/q4/_10-K-2021-(As-Filed).pdf
16. Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2020. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2020/ar/_10-K-2020-(As-Filed).pdf ; Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2019. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2019/ar/_10-K-2019-(As-Filed).pdf ; Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2018. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000032019318000145/a10-k20189292018.htm
17. Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2022. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/_10-K-2022-(As-Filed).pdf
18. Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2012. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000119312512444068/d411355d10k.htm
19. Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2022. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/_10-K-2022-(As-Filed).pdf ; Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2020. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2020/ar/_10-K-2020-(As-Filed).pdf
20. Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2021. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2021/q4/_10-K-2021-(As-Filed).pdf ; Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K. 2020. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_financials/2020/ar/_10-K-2020-(As-Filed).pdf ; Apple. 2021 Employer Information Report EEO-1 Consolidated Report. https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2021-Consolidated-EEO-1-Certified.pdf
21. Gurman, M. Apple to Cut Jobs in Some Corporate Retail Teams in First Known Layoffs. Bloomberg. April 3, 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-03/apple-to-make-small-number-of-job-cuts-in-some-corporate-retail-teams
22. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 12-month percentage change, Consumer Price Index, selected categories. https://www.bls.gov/charts/consumer-price-index/consumer-price-index-by-category-line-chart.htm ; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer prices up 9.1 percent over the year ended June 2022, largest increase in 40 years. July 18, 2022. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/consumer-prices-up-9-1-percent-over-the-year-ended-june-2022-largest-increase-in-40-years.htm#:~:text=Over%20the%2012%20months%20ended,Chart%20Data
23. Apple. Inclusion and Diversity. https://www.apple.com/diversity/ ; In 2016, in response to its EEO-1 data, Apple stated on its diversity page at the time: “We make the document publicly available, but it’s not how we measure our progress. The EEO-1 has not kept pace with changes in industry or the American workforce over the past half century. We believe the information we report elsewhere on this site is a far more accurate reflection of our progress toward diversity.” Dickey, M.R. Apple's Latest EEO-1 Report Shows Slight Diversity Progress. TechCrunch. January 19, 2016. https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/19/apples-latest-eeo-1-report-shows-slight-diversity-progress/
24. Dickey, M. R. Apple VP of diversity and inclusion Denise Young Smith is leaving. TechCrunch. November 16, 2017. https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/16/apple-vp-of-diversity-and-inclusion-denise-young-smith-is-leaving/ ; Banjo, S., Gurman, M., and Bloomberg. Apple diversity head Christine Smith exits as company commits to fighting racism. Fortune. June 16, 2020. https://fortune.com/2020/06/16/apple-christie-smith-diversity-racism/ ; Lev-Ram, M. Exclusive: Apple hires Intel's Barbara Whye as its new head of diversity. Fortune. November 19, 2020. https://fortune.com/2020/11/19/apple-hires-barbara-whye-intel-diversity-head-2021-exclusive/
25.CWA was able to locate Apple’s EEO-1 data for the years 2021, 2020, 2018, 2016, 2015, and 2014. Apple. 2021 Employer Information Report EEO-1 Consolidated Report. https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2021-Consolidated-EEO-1-Certified.pdf ; Apple. 2020 Employer Information Report EEO-1 Consolidated Report.; https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2020-Final-Certified-Apple-EEO-1-Report.pdf ; Apple. 2018 Employer Information Report Consolidated Report. https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2018-EEO-1-Consolidated-Report.pdf ; Fried, I. Apple's executive ranks are still overwhelmingly white and male. Vox. November 21, 2016. https://www.vox.com/2016/11/21/13707674/apple-diversity-executive-ranks-2016-eeoc
26. Apple. Inclusion and Diversity. https://www.apple.com/diversity/
27. Apple. 2021 Employer Information Report EEO-1 Consolidated Report. https://www.apple.com/diversity/pdf/2021-Consolidated-EEO-1-Certified.pdf ; Fried, I. Apple's executive ranks are still overwhelmingly white and male. Vox. November 21, 2016. https://www.vox.com/2016/11/21/13707674/apple-diversity-executive-ranks-2016-eeoc
28. Apple. Inclusion and Diversity. https://www.apple.com/diversity/
29. Apple. Inclusion and Diversity. https://www.apple.com/diversity/
30. SOC Investment Group. Investors Urge Apple to Conduct a Comprehensive Civil Rights Audit. May 3, 2022.https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d374de8aae9940001c8ed59/t/62716f2cf9da773d70d2488c/1651601196509/Apple_CRA+Engagement+Letter_2022.pdf
31. Leswing, K. Shareholders vote for Apple to conduct a civil rights audit, bucking company's recommendation. CNBC. March 4, 2022. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/04/apple-shareholders-vote-for-company-to-conduct-a-civil-rights-audit.html
32. Lima, C. and Schaffer, A. Under pressure, Apple commits to conducting a civil rights audit. The Washington Post. April 21, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/21/under-pressure-apple-commits-conducting-civil-rights-audit/
33. Apple. Our Commitment to Human Rights. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_downloads/gov_docs/2021/03/Our-Commitment-to-Human-Rights_Final-copy-(updated-links-Feb-2021).pdf
34. Nellis, S., and Kerber, R. Apple investor vote sounds 'warning' over China app takedowns. Reuters. February 26, 2020. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-shareholders-idCAKCN20K1PV
35. Gallagher, W. Apple refreshes and expands commitment to human rights. Apple Insider. September 4, 2020. https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/09/04/apple-announces-new-commitment-to-human-rights
Apple. Our Commitment to Human Rights. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_downloads/gov_docs/2021/03/Our-Commitment-to-Human-Rights_Final-copy-(updated-links-Feb-2021).pdf
36. Apple Store Union Video Audio. Motherboard. May 25, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-5eC1EbqHY&t=2s
37. Clark, M., and Schiffer, Z. Apple VP discourages retail workers from joining a union in leaked video. The Verge. May 25, 2022. https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/25/23141427/apple-vp-discourages-retail-workers-union-leaked-video
38. NLRB case numbers from most to least recent: 14-CA-316709, 18-CA-315168, 14-CA-314841, 16-CA-314927, 28-CA-315403, 19-CA-312627, 02-CA-311872, 09-CA-309104, 14-CA-308814, 14-CA-307194, 05-CA-306442, 14-CA-304665, 14-CA-304665, 19-CA-300011, 02-CA-295979, 10-CA-295915, 02-CA-295979
39. Eidelson, J. Apple Discriminated Against Pro-Union Staff, NLRB Alleges. Bloomberg. October 4, 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-04/apple-receives-complaint-from-us-labor-board-in-new-york-case#xj4y7vzkg
40. Eidelson, J. Apple's Labor Tactics in Atlanta Deemed Illegal by the NLRB (1). Bloomberg Law. December 5, 2022. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/apples-labor-tactics-in-atlanta-deemed-illegal-by-us-officials
41. Eidelson, J. Apple Executives Violated Worker Rights, Labor Officials Say. Bloomberg. January 30, 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-30/apple-executives-violated-worker-rights-us-labor-officials-say?srnd=technology-vp&leadSource=uverify%20wall
42. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. Comptroller Lander and Coalition of Investors Urge Apple to Respect Workers' Rights. September 7, 2022. https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-lander-and-coalition-of-investors-urge-apple-to-respect-workers-rights/
43. AAPL Workers Rights Assessment Proposal. https://mcusercontent.com/bf606302e0aec6b092c87b850/files/e75e3ba3-db20-e5e2-192e-07060e957058/AAPL_Workers_Rights_Assessment_Proposal.pdf
44. Apple. Securities and Exchange Commission. Schedule 14A. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000130817923000019/laap2023_def14a.htm
45. Schiffer, Z. Apple hires anti-union lawyers in escalating union fight. The Verge. April 25, 2022. https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/25/23041632/apple-hires-anti-union-lawyers-littler-mendelson-union-fight-cwa
46. Gurley, L.K. Leaked Memo Reveals Apple's Anti-Union Talking Points for Store Managers. Vice. May 12, 2022. https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7v8qp/leaked-memo-reveals-apples-anti-union-talking-points-for-store-managers
47. Gurman, M. Apple to Withhold Latest Employee Perks from Unionized Store. Bloomberg. October 12, 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-12/apple-to-withhold-its-latest-employee-perks-from-unionized-store
48. Eidelson, J. Apple Created a Pseudo-Union to Defeat Organizers in Ohio, Complaint Claims. Bloomberg. December 16, 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-16/apple-created-pseudo-union-to-defeat-organizers-complaint-says#xj4y7vzkg ; National Labor Relations Board. Interfering with or dominating a union (Section 8(a)(2)) https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/interfering-with-or-dominating-a-union-section-8a2
49. Jamieson, D. Apple Store Workers Say The Company is Stalling on Its First Union Contract. HuffPost. April 7, 2023 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/apple-store-union-contract_n_64304e09e4b001e12d71e07a
50. Apple. Apple Supplier Code of Conduct. https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple-Supplier-Code-of-Conduct-and-Supplier-Responsibility-Standards.pdf
52. Gurman, M. Apple Continues Efforts to Keep Retail Stores from Unionizing. Bloomberg. April 9, 2023. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-04-09/apple-aapl-continues-efforts-to-keep-retail-stores-from-unionizing-lg9gjdx2
53. All worker interviews conducted between March 2023 and April 2023.
54. Apple. Inclusion and Diversity. https://www.apple.com/diversity/
55. Apple. Our Commitment to Human Rights. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_downloads/gov_docs/2021/03/Our-Commitment-to-Human-Rights_Final-copy-(updated-links-Feb-2021).pdf
56. Apple. Our Commitment to Human Rights. https://s2.q4cdn.com/470004039/files/doc_downloads/gov_docs/2021/03/Our-Commitment-to-Human-Rights_Final-copy-(updated-links-Feb-2021).pdf