Apple extending full health to part-time employees?
updated 03:05 pm EDT, Tue October 27, 2009
Change said to stem from worker dissatisfaction
Part-time workers for Apple will soon have the same medical benefits as full-time ones, sources say. Equal insurance is expected to become available in January, and apply to anyone working 15 or more hours a week, so long as a person also has at least a year of Apple experience. The company has approximately 9,900 part-time workers at retail, a large percentage of which should be covered by the new policy.
The change is said to have its origins in the unhappiness of part-time workers voiced during the past year. That resulted in the company circulating an internal survey, which determined benefits and insurance to be common complaints.
Apple is currently said to pay for as much as 65 percent of a full-time worker's insurance, a ratio which should extend to the part-time sphere. Plans at Apple cover a range of different relationship situations, from individuals and married couples to domestic and same-sex partners. The expansion of insurance to most employees could cost the company in excess of $80 million annually.
Complete medical coverage is rare for part-time workers in the US, many of whom have reduced benefits or none at all.
Small price to pay
10/27, 03:20pm (1 reply) reply
upwards of 80 million a year? Small price to pay for happy employees and it will help keep the experienced workers around longer, part time or otherwise.
Good move.
DeezNutts
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2008
Good move, but ...
10/27, 03:47pm (1 reply) reply
... hopefully one that will ultimately be unnecessary, thanks to the introduction of universal public healthcare into the US, finally joining the entire rest of the world in getting on board with the concept that third-party, profit-making middlemen don't need to be involved in healthcare.
Maybe someday the US will even see the light and switch to metric ...
chas_m
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
@chas_m
10/27, 04:01pm reply
YES
climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2001
This is a horribly misleading headline
10/27, 04:50pm reply
Nowhere, even on the linked-to IFO Apple Store post, is there any concrete evidence this is going to happen, nothing more than "According to sources..."
Yet the headline screams that it WILL HAPPEN.
Not only that, large portions of the article are almost identical, so you guys didn't even bother re-writing it, just copied and pasted.
Shame on you.
frijole
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2007
The headline is in the form of a question
10/27, 06:30pm reply
This cost constitutes .005% of Apple's bank balance.
This is a very very good move. (I don't work there. Those shirts are horrendous.)
SCslugger
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2009