Lidl makes biggest ever investment in staff wages
Lidl GB has announced that it is making its biggest ever investment in staff wages.
The supermarket is committing £18 million to enable it to increase entry-level pay from £9.50 to £10.10 per hour outside of London and £10.85 to £11.35 within the M25, with staff earning up to £11.40 and £12.25 respectively depending on their length of service.
Lidl said the increase will represent a pay rise of over 6% for some employees and will directly benefit over 21,000 Lidl staff members across the UK.
The move means that Lidl employees will benefit from 60p per hour more than the National Living Wage if they are over 23.
Christian Härtnagel, chief executive at Lidl GB, said: “At Lidl, our frontline colleagues are the backbone of our business. They have worked tirelessly over the past 18 months of the Covid-19 crisis and are integral to our future success.
“We have ambitious plans to grow our business across Great Britain, and to do that we need to ensure we attract and look after the best talent at every level of our business.
“This year we feel incredibly lucky to be in a position as a business to go even further by making this significant investment in our incredible workforce, which will make us the best paying supermarket in the UK.”
Over the last five years, the retailer has made a combined investment of over £50 million into hourly wages. It has also given front-line workers a £200 thank-you payment this year and gave a £150 gift voucher to all employees in 2020.
Nan Gibson, chief HR officer at Lidl, said: “In 2015 we became the first supermarket in the UK to match the rates advocated by the Living Wage Foundation, and we are proud to have consistently increased wages every year since.
“There is no denying how hard our people work, more so than ever during recent times, and we’re delighted to be able to give our store and distribution centre colleagues the recognition they deserve and look forward to welcoming new colleagues to our teams in the months ahead.”
The wage increase will come into effect from Lidl’s new financial year in March 2022.
