Aldi has announced new pay rates to ensure all store and warehouse workers earn at least £12 an hour.
Minimum pay rates will boost by 40p an hour, and by 70p to £13.55 within the M25, with the increases taking effect from February.
The discount chain is the first supermarket to bring in such a policy. Aldi said it is investing £67million to boost employee wages.
The group said it is also the only supermarket to offer paid breaks, which for the average store worker is worth more than £900 a year.
Giles Hurley, chief executive of Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “Just as we promise to furnish the best value to our customers, we are also committed to being the highest-paying supermarket in the sector.
“We are incredibly proud of every single member of Team Aldi and this is a way of thanking them for all their hard work over the past year.
“We believe our colleagues are the best in the sector and they play a huge part in making Aldi what it is today.”
Aldi is the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket and has more than 1,000 stores, 11 regional distribution centres and 40,000 employees across Britain.
The news comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt recently announced the National Living Wage will rise from £10.42 to £11.44 per hour, an almost 10 percent boost.
This is the minimum wage that has to be paid to employees over the age of 23 – although under the new pay rates coming in from the start of April 2024, this will be extended to all workers aged 21 and over.
This means a 21-year-old employee will get a 12.4 percent boost from £10.18 this year to £11.44 next year, an boost of almost £2,300 a year for a full-time worker.
Aldi recently opened 10 new stores in Spain, including in Majorca and the Canary Islands, providing a fresh option for British expats to get their groceries.
The new stores have opened in these locations:
- Alfafar (Valencia)
- Betera (Valencia)
- Bilbao
- Granada
- Las Palmas
- Madrid
- Melilla
- Mos-Porrino (Vigo)
- Palma de Mallorca
- Toledo.
Aldi said it plans to grow its number of employees by 15 percent in Spain by the end of this year.
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