Suddenly, Apple is being super nice to employees

Yesterday’s New York Times featured a story about how little Apple Store employees are paid, considering the high volume of high end merchandise they’re pumping out into the world on a daily basis. The Times reported that average store employees made $11.91 while the average store had sales of $5,647 per square foot in 2011. TIffany employees on the other hand made $15.60 on sales of $3,085.

The LA Times says Apple, likely anticipating the story, has already made moves to mollify the peasants, lest they arise with pitchforks:

The Cupertino, Calif., company in the last week announced that its 30,000 U.S. retail employees would get bigger discounts on hardware ($500 off most Macs and $250 off iPads, on top of the 25% discount they already receive), invitations to receive and test its next operating system ahead of its release, and early raises that had not been expected until September — with some workers getting as much as a 30% increase.