Aldi to increase staff pay

Workers in Aldi will receive a pay hike with a new minimum wage of £8.40 an hour from February 2016.

Aldi store assistants now earn €11 an hour, significantly above the national minimum wage of €8.65. And has also announced plans to recruit and train more than 600 apprentices over an 18-month period starting in January 2016, to support its United Kingdom expansion.

Of the other major supermarkets in the United Kingdom, Sainsbury’s has already committed to paying staff a minimum of £7.36 along with perks like paid breaks and free food.

It was announced on Monday that Aldi will be the latest retailer to raise staff’s wages above the living wage – topping offers from competitors Lidl and Morrisons, who guaranteed last month to raise staff wages to £8.20.

More than 400 jobs are promised by supermarket group Aldi with the opening of seven new stores next year.

It opened its 600th United Kingdom store earlier this month, in Cardiff.

Matthew Barnes, Aldi United Kingdom and Ireland chief executive, said: “The success of Aldi in the United Kingdom and Ireland has been driven by the commitment, hard work and ambition of our employees and we will continue to maintain our leading position on pay”. The pay rise by Aldi is on the wake of George Osborne’s National Living Wage, initiating next year April.

Aldi said it will not need to increase prices in its stores to fund the rising wages. Aldi boasts to have half of British families as their shoppers, employs around 28,000 people in the UK. This will increase to £9.45 for staff working in London.

By 2020 companies will have to pay at least £9 an hour.

Tesco is said be discussions with unions over its new pay deal for shop staff.