Lidl has become the last supermarket to announce a salary increase for thousands of workers before the minimum wage increase in April.
The reduction chain belonging to Germans indicates that salary increases, which include the increase in its level of entry level at level of £ 12.40 to £ 12.75, will allocate around 28,000 employees.
The increase will take Lidl’s remuneration rates above the expected increases that have been announced by Sainsbury’s and Aldi.
Many retailers have warned that the increase in the minimum wage in April, as well as an increase in national employers’ insurance contributions (NICS), will lead to job losses, higher prices and store closings.
From April, the national statutory salary for the 21 years and over will go from £ 11.44 an hour to £ 12.21.
Lidl employs more than 35,000 people across the United Kingdom in more than 970 stores and 14 warehouses.
He said that his new time remuneration rate can reach £ 13.65 depending on the duration of the service. In London, new starters will see their hourly rate increase to £ 14.00, which can increase to £ 14.35 over time.
This at the head of Aldi, who recently revealed that he would pay all the assistants of the stores at least £ 12.71 per hour on a national scale, with higher prices in London.
Last month, Sainsbury’s said that his salary would drop from £ 12.45 an hour in March before a new £ 12.60 increase with higher prices for workers in London.
However, Sainsbury’s also announced that it would reduce 3,000 jobs by closing its remaining cafes and closes its pastry and pizza meters.
While Sainsbury’s was already in the middle of a plan aimed at saving 1 billion pounds sterling in the coming years, it is understood that the increase in nicks of employers announced in the budget was also a factor in the restructuring plan.
The government has defended its tax increases as necessary to avoid reductions in public services, and the Treasury said that exemptions for small businesses mean that more than half of employers will see a reduction or no change in their invoices .
But many retailers criticized this decision, and Sunday, the boss of M&S, Stuart Machin, said that the retailers were “attacked like a piggy bank” given the changes in various taxes.
Meanwhile, a survey on the job market by KPMG and the Confederation of Recruitment and Employment (REC) indicated that companies are retained on the recruitment of new employees, because an uncertainty about the way in which the economy behaves led to a “wait and see” approach.
He found that the number of vacationers had dropped sharply for permanent workers, with an steep drop observed in January.
“An autumn of tax gloom, difficulties to navigate increases in future tax and little progress on the practical aspects of a new expensive approach to employment rights act all as brakes on progress”, said Neil Carberry, Director General of REC.
