Discount grocer Aldi has upped the ante on the British supermarket hiring war with its second pay bump this year.
From 1 June 2024, Aldi will increase the hourly wages of its store assistants and deputy store managers to £12.40 outside the M25 and £13.65 within the M25.
The announcement comes a month after Aldi committed to a £12-per-hour minimum wage for all store and warehouse staff in the UK.
“We firmly believe that our colleagues are the best in the business, so it is only right that they remain the best-paid and we are committed to never being beaten on pay by any other supermarket,” commented Giles Hurley, chief executive of Aldi UK and Ireland.
Aldi is under pressure to commit to this policy in a jobs market that has shifted to the employee side.
Earlier this month, Asda announced an 8.4% wage increase for hourly staff, raising rates to £12.04 nationally and £13.21 inside the M25 from 1 July.
Last December, Lidl announced plans to become the first supermarket in Britain to offer 28 weeks of full pay for colleagues on maternity or adoption leave.
UK unemployment held firm at 3.9% in January, according to the latest official statistics; Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey called this “full employment”.
Discount supermarkets have tighter margins than the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury’s, yet they have been the most bullish in their approach to wages.
Tesco will raise its hourly pay rate outside of London to £12.02 in April and £13.15 in London, with Sainsbury’s going with a flat £12-per-hour pay rise outside of London while matching Tescos’ London rate.
Which? data from February suggests that, while discount supermarkets have increased wages disproportionately, they have not necessarily passed these costs through to customers.
Sainsbury's had the highest levels of inflation, with prices up 10.1% year on year in the month of December, followed by Lidl at 8.1%, Tesco at 8%, Asda at 7.8% and Morrisons at 7.5%.