Discount supermarket group Aldi said on Friday it was awarding its store staff another pay rise, its fourth in just over a year.
Aldi UK said store assistants would receive a minimum of £11.40 an hour nationally and £12.85 within the M25 from 1 July.
Pay rates rise further to £12.30 nationally and £13.15 within the M25 based on length of service, with over 28,000 store colleagues set to benefit from the increase.
The new £11.40 per hour starting rate is more than 13 per cent higher than it was a year ago, representing an investment of more than £100 million in colleague pay in the last 12 months.
Aldi noted that the new rates are higher than the Real Living Wage, set by the Living Wage Foundation, of £10.90 per hour nationally and £11.95 inside the M25.
Aldi also claimed that it is the only supermarket to pay for breaks, which for the average store colleague is worth an additional £927 annually.
The announcement follows a series of pay increases, starting in February last year, when the rates had gone up from £9.55 to £10.10 nationally and from £11.07 to £11.55 within the M25. It increased the national minimum to £10.50, and £11.95 within the M25, in September, before upping it to at least £11 an hour nationally and £12.45 within the M25 in January this year.
“We believe our colleagues are the best in the sector and we are committed to ensuring they are also the best paid,” Giles Hurley, Aldi UK and Ireland chief executive, said.
“We are incredibly proud of every single member of Team Aldi and are pleased to become the first UK supermarket to pay a minimum of £11.40 per hour to all store assistants.”
Aldi is set to create more than 6,000 new jobs this year, adding to the 4,500 permanent roles created last year. The supermarket has more than 40,000 colleagues and over 990 stores in the UK.
Aldi’s new pay rise raises the bar for supermarkets after Tesco announced a minimum of £11.02 an hour from next month for its workers and with Asda staff set to get £11.10 from July.
Tanwar Hussain
