10 Things You Didn't Know About Apple and Its Employees

Apple's workers in Cupertino, Calif., earn an average of $125,000.

ByABC News
June 6, 2013, 8:10 AM

June 6, 2013 — -- intro: A report describing plans for the expansion of Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., was chockfull of interesting tidbits about the company, such as its ambitious hiring plans and the average salary of its workers.

The report was prepared by real estate advisory firm Keyser Marston Associates Inc. under contract with Apple Inc. to evaluate the economic impact of the expansion on the surrounding area.

Apple's late founder, Steve Jobs, presented plans for Apple Campus 2 to the Cupertino City Council on June 7, 2011, with renderings of what looked like a futuristic circular building.

"It's a little like a spaceship," he said in his presentation.

Jobs died on Oct. 5, 2011.

Plans to begin work on the campus were initially set for 2012, with a move-in date at the end of 2015. The move-in date has now been pushed to 2016. The expansion has been budgeted at nearly $5 billion, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.

Apple did not return a request for comment.

Here are 10 things Apple novices and fans might learn from the report about Apple employees and the current and future "mother ship."

quicklist:title: Apple's Cupertino employees earn $125,000 on averagetext: Apple employees in the Cupertino area earned $2 billion in 2012, which is just from the base salaries of 16,000 employees, according to the report. The report states actual salaries are confidential, so the salary data for software engineers published by the Occupational Employment Survey for Santa Clara County was used as a conservative proxy for the estimate. With the completion of Apple Campus 2, employee base salary income is expected to exceed $2.9 billion, and will likely have a favorable impact on the purchase of local goods and services, says the company.

Nothing was mentioned about Apple's retail workers, whose hourly wages vary by location. Apple has a company store in its headquarters that sells souvenirs with the Apple logo, and retail stores in nearby areas such as Santa Clara, San Jose and Palo Alto, but it does not have a retail store in Cupertino.

quicklist:title: Apple's nickname for its headquarterstext: Apple Inc.'s worldwide corporate headquarters facility, which is known as the Infinite Loop Campus, is located at 1 Infinite Loop in the city of Cupertino, about 45 miles south of San Francisco. The inspiration for the name is presumably from a programming concept.

The campus spans 856,000 square feet and houses about 3,000 employees, but it has 16,000 employees in the Cupertino area, according to the report.

quicklist:title: Apple Campus 2 spans 176 acrestext: Apple presented its latest plans for the Apple Campus 2 in April. The company has been buying property for its second campus over several years to accommodate about 13,000 additional employees in Cupertino, the report states. The site of its proposed Apple Campus 2 is separated from its Infinite Loop campus by a freeway, Interstate 280.

After the existing 2.65 million square feet of office buildings on the property will be demolished, the new facilities will have an auditorium, fitness center, parking structures, "buildings to house research and development," and a central plant.

quicklist:title: Apple's Cupertino employees increased 18 percent on average in the past five yearstext: Despite a drop in Apple's stock price in recent months and stiff competition in the mobile market, the company's sales increased six-fold between 2006 and 2012 to $156.6 billion. With that, the company has added a significant number to its headquarters' headcount.

"With a 10 percent annual growth rate, 7,400 employees will be hired between June 2013 and the completion of Apple Campus 2 in 2016, resulting in a projected total employee count of 23,400," the report states.

quicklist:title: Apple expects to have 41,000 jobs in Santa Clara County by 2016 text: "By the time Apple Campus 2 is completed in 2016, it is expected that 23,400 Apple employees will be based in Cupertino, which will bring the total number of countywide jobs supported by Apple to 41,100," the report states.

quicklist:title: Apple is the second-largest technology employer in Silicon Valley text: The company has 16,000 full-time employees based in the Cupertino area.

Read more: $82 Million 'Google' Airport Terminal To Break Ground in Fall 2013

quicklist:title: Apple's Employees Mostly Live in San Jose text: The company says its Cupertino-based employees live throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, but 64 percent live in communities within Santa Clara County. Key concentrations of workers in the Bay Area include 25 percent in San Jose, 14 percent in San Francisco, 8 percent in Cupertino, 8 percent in Sunnyvale and 6 percent in Santa Clara.

Though not described in the report, it's widely known that Apple and other Silicon Valley tech companies such as Google have offered shuttles for employee commuters who live in popular areas like downtown San Francisco.

quicklist:title: Apple generates $103 million of gross sales for other Cupertino businessestext: Apple and Apple employee purchases generate $103 million of gross sales in the local economy. The report also states that with Apple Campus 2, indirect/induced sales impacts in Cupertino are anticipated to total $151 million per year.

quicklist:title: Apple is Cupertino's largest single employertext: The company's employees account for 40 percent of the city's job base. Other major employers in the city are Cupertino Union School District and De Anza College.

Read more: Apple, Google Pushed to Combat Smartphone Thefts

quicklist:title: Apple generated $25 million in local property tax revenuetext: In 2012, property occupied by Apple in Cupertino generated about $25 million in local property tax revenue, which was distributed to local schools, the Santa Clara County Library, Central Fire Protection District, and other local agencies.

"Total recurring property tax revenues to fund local community services are expected to exceed $50 million each year," the report states.

Read more: Apple CEO Tim Cook Defends $140 Billion in Cash Overseas; Calls for Tax Reform