wp-plugin-hostgator domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114ol-scrapes domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/05\/18\/apple-still-has-a-diversity-problem\/<\/a><\/br> The higher you<\/span> climb up the corporate ladder at Apple, the whiter it gets. That\u2019s according to data analyzed by the Communications Workers of America<\/a> (CWA), the union that\u2019s helping retail workers at Apple stores organize.<\/p>\n As some Apple retail workers fight for union recognition and a seat at the bargaining table, the CWA is using Apple\u2019s own data to show how the company falls short in its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI<\/a>) efforts.<\/p>\n Despite Apple\u2019s efforts to cultivate a more racially diverse workforce, management positions still skew white, the data shows. Even though Apple succeeded at hiring more people of color, the data indicates the company disproportionately promoted its white workers.<\/p>\n People of color at Apple are far more likely to be working low-level jobs. According to Apple\u2019s own data collected between 2014 and 2021, the number of Black and Hispanic workers has increased by 70.1% and 93.1% respectively. But for Black workers, 85.6% of those jobs have been in lower paid sales or admin support roles; for Hipsanic people, that\u2019s 60.8%.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the number of white people in sales roles decreased by 24.9%, and the number of white people in the \u201cfirst\/mid officials & managers\u201d and \u201cprofessionals\u201d job categories grew by 187.2% over the seven year span.<\/p>\n The CWA\u2019s report also found that Apple failed to post year-over-year increases in Black and Hispanic representation in the most advanced job classification, \u201cexecutive\/[senior] officials & managers.\u201d Per Apple\u2019s most recent employer information report (EEO-1<\/a>), there are 126 employees in the highest job category. From this group of the highest paid employees, 77.7% are white. Only eight out of 126 senior managers are women of color.<\/p>\n Apple says that it does not use these government-mandated reports to measure its progress<\/a>.<\/p>\n These findings don\u2019t come as a surprise to Sidney Lo, who worked at Apple retail locations in New York City for almost twelve years, climbing up the ranks of store management. When he left Apple, he posted his salary on LinkedIn as a gesture of pay transparency. Following in his footsteps, more than 700 Apple retail employees shared their salaries<\/a> anonymously, including their gender and race.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always two sides of Apple: Apple as a corporate entity and Apple as a retail entity,\u201d Lo told TechCrunch. \u201cI think from a decision perspective, some of these [DEI] decisions get lost in transition from corporate down to retail, and retail down to employees.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Apple workers think that a possible explanation for the lack of diversity in leadership is that it\u2019s unclear how to get a promotion, or what metrics are weighed most heavily when considering raises. One current retail employee told the CWA that the path to career advancement feels \u201carbitrary,\u201d saying it\u2019s \u201clike playing Wordle,\u201d except once you guess the word, the solution changes.<\/p>\n \u201cApple likes to go by these guidelines of some random form of metrics that we don\u2019t even know about\u2026 they don\u2019t go by your monthly metrics, weekly metrics,\u201d another retail employee told the CWA.<\/p>\n A leader of the #AppleToo<\/a> labor movement, former Apple software engineer Cher Scarlett found similar trends among corporate Apple employees. In an internal survey Scarlett conducted in 2021 with nearly 3,000 respondents, she found that white men have far greater opportunity to advance in the company.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very striking, not only that women and people of color tend to be in these lower positions, but also, instead of being in hardware, AI, ML or software engineering, they\u2019re more likely to be in service or retail,\u201d Scarlett told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Scarlett also noticed in this internal survey that even when men and women worked in similar jobs for similar lengths of time, men generally had higher salaries than their female colleagues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe white men are making more than everybody else because they are getting the advancement,\u201d Scarlett said.<\/p>\n Apple has a history of shutting down<\/a> employee-run surveys about pay equity. Though Lo began compiling his data after leaving the company, Scarlett found that Apple was increasingly hostile toward her while she conducted her internal research. She ended up leaving the company after receiving a settlement and withdrawing a complaint she submitted to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).<\/p>\n Around the same time that Scarlett left Apple, Janneke Parrish, another #AppleToo organizer, was fired for \u201cnon-compliance.\u201d The former Apple Maps program manager was let go for deleting personal files from her phone and computer before turning them over to Apple for investigation. She told The New York Times<\/a> that she felt she was experiencing retaliation for her organizing.<\/p>\n The same trends hold true at the retail level. The CWA alleged that Apple retaliated against five union organizers in Kansas City, who were fired<\/a> for attendance-related issues. The workers said that they felt they were being singled out, since firings of this kind had been historically uncommon at the store.<\/p>\n Like many other companies, the coronavirus pandemic brought underlying problems at Apple to the forefront, spurring conversations among employees about union organizing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what was really challenging was seeing how successful the company was during such a hard time, and we weren\u2019t getting additional pay,\u201d Lo told TechCrunch. \u201cWe were just being asked to continue to do more, like your job would expand into different elements of health and safety. I was basically a nurse, as a manager.\u201d<\/p>\n For the first time in the company\u2019s U.S. history, two retail locations in Towson, Maryland<\/a> and Oklahoma City<\/a> voted to unionize in 2022, despite Apple\u2019s efforts to dissuade its staff. Before the union vote in Towson, the trillion-dollar company\u2019s Vice President of People and Retail Deirdre O\u2019Brien sent a video to 58,000 retail staff<\/a> warning them about the drawbacks of unionizing.<\/p>\n Apple retains the same anti-union law firm, Littler Mendelson<\/a>, that represents companies like Amazon and Starbucks. The NLRB found<\/a> merit<\/a> to complaints that all three of these companies have violated labor laws that protect employees\u2019 right to organize. At Apple specifically, the NLRB found that the company illegally interfered<\/a> with labor organizing at stores in New York City<\/a> and Atlanta<\/a>.<\/p>\n In conjunction with the release of its report today, the CWA is calling on Apple to stop working with Littler Mendelson and adopt a policy of union neutrality. Microsoft recently adopted a similar policy, which states that it won\u2019t interfere<\/a> with employees\u2019 right to organize. This policy helped 300 workers at ZeniMax<\/a>, a gaming division within Microsoft, to earn voluntary recognition for their union.<\/p>\n When reached prior to publication, a spokesperson for Apple did not provide comment by press time.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
\nApple retail still has a diversity problem, union says<\/br>
\n2023-05-18 21:56:15<\/br><\/p>\n