Aldi gives thousands of workers second pay rise this year to £12.40 an hour

12 March 2024 , 09:29

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Aldi staff are to see another pay rise this year (Image: Getty Images)

Aldi workers are to see another pay rise this year with Aldi extending its lead as the best paid UK supermarket once again.

Hourly pay for the supermarket's store assistants and deputy store managers will rise from £12 an hour to £12.40 outside the M25 and £13.55 to £13.65 within. The new pay rates will be introduced from June 1 this year with Aldi noting that it is "the highest level of entry pay ever to be paid by a British supermarket".

Last month, the supermarket chain introduced a minimum rate of £12 an hour for all store and warehouse staff. The new minimum pay rates for staff were in line with the Real Living Wage set by the Living Wage Foundation (LWF) in October 2023. The Real Living Wage is different to the National Living Wage. It is a scheme which businesses and employers sign up to and the rate is based on up-to-date living costs, taking into account the cost of bills, the weekly shop and other measures.

Aldi says it has now invested £79million in staff wages this year and boasts that it is the only supermarket to offer paid breaks, which it says gives the average store worker an additional £900 a year. Aldi UK and Ireland chief executive Giles Hurley pledged that it will "never be beaten on pay" by any other supermarket. The supermarket boss noted that "it is only right" for staff to remain the "best paid" in the sector.

They said: “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. Our Store Operations colleagues play an integral part in our ever-increasing popularity among shoppers and our continued investment in their pay is another way to thank them for the role they play in making Aldi what it is today.”

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Aldi has more than 1,000 stores and 11 regional distribution centres across the UK and overall it employs around 45,000 staff. It comes as Tesco revealed last week it is investing £300million into staff pay by raising the hourly rates by 9.1% to £12.02 in April. Fellow supermarket chain Asda also announced that wages for staff were to rise by 8.4% taking its hourly rate to £12.04 an hour from July.

Ruby Flanagan