Aldi staff to get second pay rise this year as inflation bites

German discount retailer Aldi on Monday said it was giving its UK staff a second pay rise since the start of the year as inflation continued to spiral.

The company, which has 970 stores in its UK estate, said store assistants would see with their minimum pay increase to £10.50 an hour, and £11.95 for those in Greater London.

It said the pay hike will support 26,000 store workers and take the firm’s pay investment to £43m over the past year.

The move comes only five months after the group’s UK minimum pay increased to £10.10 from £9.55, while it rose to £11.55 from £11.07 within Greater London.

It also means Aldi will become the highest-paying supermarket in the UK once again, after Morrisons confirmed an increase in pay for workers outside London to £10.20 an hour from October.

The National Living Wage - which is how much companies have to pay by law to those aged 23 or over - is set at £9.50 an hour, while the National Minimum Wage for those of at least school leaving age is £9.18 for those aged 21 to 22, £6.83 for workers aged 18 to 20 and £4.81 for under 18s.

New wage figures released last week showed regular pay, without bonuses, grew 4.3% in the year to March to May 2022. However, once they were adjusted for soaring inflation, regular pay fell by 2.8% - the steepest drop since records began in 2000.

CPI inflation hit a new 40-year record of 9.4% in the 12 months to June and is expected to reach as high as 11% later this year.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti at Sharecast.com