Lidl and Aldi have become the highest-paying supermarkets in the borough, as staff members start the year with another pay rise.
Store staff at Lidl get an hourly pay rise of £12 from £11.40, rising to £13 with length of service. Aldi also offer staff an hourly pay of £12, rising to £12.95 based on length of service.
Lidl last month revealed it was investing £37m in pay to increase the wages of its 26,000 hourly-paid workers and salaried colleagues following a similar move by Aldi in December 2023.
The lowest payers were Morrisons at £10.92 an hour and M&S who pay staff £10.90.
The National Minimum Wage is £10.45 an hour for those aged 21 and over – this will increase to £11.44 from April 2024.
All supermarkets pay higher than the National Minimum Wage.
So if you’re considering a job at one of these shops it’s worth looking at the work perks you can get too.
But which grocery shop pays the best rates? Here are the basic hourly rates of pay ranked.
Lidl
Last month, Lidl invested £37m in pay to increase the wages of its 26,000 hourly-paid workers and salaried colleagues.
From March 1, entry-level roles at the discount grocer will be 17% higher than the new National Minimum Wage being introduced in April.
Colleagues will see hourly pay raised from £11.40 to £12, increasing to £13 with length of service.
Other new pay benefits include a bank holiday premium of £2 per hour and an enhanced nightshift premium of £3.50.
Aldi
In December, Aldi raised pay for all store and warehouse colleagues to a minimum of £12 an hour nationally.
Store assistants will see their pay rise further to £12.95 based on the length of their service.
Aldi is also the only supermarket to offer paid breaks, which for the average store colleague is worth more than an additional £900 a year.
Sainsbury’s
Last month, Sainsbury’s invested £200m to increase hourly rates by 9.1%.
From March, wages for store colleagues will rise to £12 per hour nationally and £13.15 within the M25.
The change, which was described by Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts as “industry leading”, will impact 120,000 hourly paid employees and marks the supermarket giant’s single biggest ever investment into colleague pay.
Since 2018, Sainsbury’s has increased pay by 50% and by 9% in the past year in line with the Real Living Wage.
Employees will receive an additional £1,910 a year nationally and £2,290 a year in London, making it the largest supermarket to pay colleagues the new Real Living Wage nationally and the London Living Wage.
Asda
Last year, Asda invested a record £141m in giving staff a 10% pay increase to hourly-paid store colleagues.
In July, pay rates rose to £11.11 per hour – a move benefitting more than 115,000 colleagues.
In April, the retailer offered employees an advance on their pay to help with the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.
With financial wellbeing app Wagestream, Asda colleagues can access up to 50% of their earned contracted pay when they choose.
Tesco
In April 2023, Tesco made its biggest ever investment in employee pay of £230m as it boosted its hourly rate by 7% to £11.02.
At the same time, the retail giant rolled out further employee pay benefits including an increased additional skills payment for shift leaders, taking their hourly rate to £13.28.
Morrisons
Morrisons increased its hourly pay rates last October, when they raised the established rate for a customer assistant by 50p to £10.92.
M&S
In February 2023, M&S invested £57m to increase the hourly pay of its 40,000 customer assistants across the UK.
The wage, which came into effect on 1 April, marked the retailer’s “biggest ever investment” in front-line colleague reward.
The rate of pay for customer assistants nationally increased 70p to £10.90 per hour and pay rose to £12.05, up from £11.25 for those working in London.
