Discount supermarket Lidl will next year increase wages for thousands of its British staff by 2.4%, it announced today.
Lidl said it will continue to pay its UK staff at an hourly rate above that of the government-mandated National Living Wage.
German-owned Lidl said that from March 1 all UK employees would get a minimum of £8.45 an hour across England, Scotland and Wales and £9.75 an hour in London.
The rise is consistent with the rate proposed by campaigning group the Living Wage Foundation which is above that of the UK government set minimum pay rate.
Lidl said the increase would directly benefit 5,500 employees, a quarter of its UK workforce.
Last year, Lidl became the first British supermarket to adopt the rate set by the Living Wage Foundation, implementing a 12% pay rise.
Lidl UK last year set out plans to invest £1.5 billion over the next three years on expanding its store and logistics network with a view to opening 1,500 stores in Britain in the long term. It currently trades from 640.
But in September it parted company with long-term chief executive Ronny Gottschlich, replacing him with Christian Härtnagel, a little known Lidl executive who was previously in charge of sales and operations in Austria.
