[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Apple has reportedly paid an unprecedented stock bonus worth up to $180,000 (approximately 200 million KRW) to prevent the departure of talent.
According to a report by Bloomberg on the 28th (local time), citing key insiders, Apple is said to have offered stock bonuses ranging from at least $50,000 to up to $180,000 to its core engineers. These bonuses are paid over four years and are reportedly targeted at engineers belonging to silicon design, hardware, some software, and operations groups.
The reason Apple paid such an unusually large bonus is interpreted as an effort to prevent losing technical personnel to Meta (formerly Facebook).
Meta is known to have hired about 100 engineers from Apple alone in recent months.
Conversely, Apple is also recruiting key employees from Meta, resulting in a talent war between Meta and Apple.
The background of this talent war is understood to be that both companies are preparing to launch augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets, smartwatches, and other products within the next two years.
Additionally, there is analysis that Apple’s push for office returns has led to dissatisfaction among engineers, resulting in their departure.
Apple has stated that employees must work at least three days a week in the office, and hardware engineers must work at least four to five days.
In contrast, Meta has a more flexible policy regarding office work.
Bloomberg reported that Apple said this bonus was given as a performance-based reward to engineers selected by managers, but engineers excluded from the bonus have expressed dissatisfaction, claiming the selection was arbitrary.
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