CUPERTINO, California: Apple is increasing the starting salaries of its retail and corporate employees due to the overall labor shortage, growing unionization and high inflation.

For the company's retail workers, the starting hourly rate will increase from $20 to $22 per hour, or even higher in some regions.

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, an Apple spokesperson said, "Supporting and retaining the best team members in the world enables us to deliver the best, most innovative, products and services for our customers. This year, as part of our annual performance review process, we're increasing our overall compensation budget."

Just weeks before the announced increase, an Apple store in Maryland became its third U.S. retail branch to unionize, following similar moves in New York and Georgia.

To counter these efforts to unionize, the company's vice president of people and retail, Deirdre O'Brien, said in an internal video, "I worry about what it would mean to put another organization in the middle of our relationship."

According to CNBC, U.S. workers from all sectors are shopping around for jobs due to a low 3.6 percent unemployment rate and April's high inflation rate of 8.3 percent.

Many higher-paid tech employees are also being squeezed financially by falling share prices that impact their stock options, and other major tech companies, such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google, are working to attract these workers.

Some Apple employees have also pushed back against the company's efforts to bring its workers back into the office.

But after recent surges in COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates, Apple has slowed this move and asked employees to go back to wearing masks when not in their personal workspaces.