// Aldi is boosting its starting pay for store assistants to a minimum of £11.40 per hour nationally
// The move will impact over 28,000 UK workers
Aldi is raising its starting pay for store assistants to a minimum of £11.40 per hour nationally and to £12.85 within the M25 – as it maintains its position as the UK’s highest-paying supermarket.
The German grocer said the new £11.40 per hour starting rate, which will come into effect on 1 July, is more than 13% higher than it was a year ago.
Over 28,000 store colleagues will benefit from the increase, which takes Aldi’s investment in pay in the last 12 months to over £100 million.
This announcement follows a series of pay increases by Aldi, including raising hourly rates for 7,000 warehouse colleagues across the UK back in January.
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Aldi UK and Ireland chief executive Giles Hurley said: “We believe our colleagues are the best in the sector and we are committed to ensuring they are also the best paid.
“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.”
Last month, Aldi revealed plans to create more than 6,000 new jobs this year following the addition of 4,500 permanent roles in 2022.
The supermarket has more than 40,000 colleagues and over 990 stores in the UK.
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Aldi can afford to pay the higher wage compared to rivals as it’s store have far less of a workforce then a Tesco or Sainsbury’s etc an average big 3 supermarket like Asda, Tesco etc would probably have a staff head count per store of over 300,400 unlike an Aldi or Lidl at 20 to 50 head count.