With the price of food, energy and fuel having risen, many of the UK’s leading grocers have invested in employee pay, with some having increased rates up to three times in the past year alone.
As we enter the second half, we take another look at which UK supermarkets are paying front-line staff the most.
| Retailer | Store assistant pay nationally | Store assistant pay inside the M25 |
| Lidl | £11.40 | £12.85 |
| Aldi | £11.40 | £12.85 |
| Asda | £11.11 | £12.28 |
| Tesco | £11.02 | £11.95 |
| Sainsbury’s | £11 | £11.95 |
| M&S | £10.90 | £12.05 |
| Waitrose | £10.50 | £11.72 |
| Morrisons | £10.42 | £10.42 |
Lidl
In May, discount grocer Lidl became the highest paying supermarket as it unveiled its third pay rate increase in 12 months, benefitting all of its 24,500 hourly-paid workers.
Store and warehouse colleagues working outside the M25 saw an hourly pay increase to £11.40 from £11.00, rising to £12.30 with length of service.
Pay for those inside the M25 increased to £12.85 from £11.95, rising to £13.15.
This move represented an overall investment of £8m and equates to a combined investment of over £60m into colleague pay in the past year.
Aldi
In March, Aldi unveiled plans to raise starting pay for store assistants to a minimum of £11.40 per hour nationally, and £12.85 within the M25.
The rate, which came into effect on 1 July, is more than 13% higher than it was a year ago, representing an investment of more than £100m in colleague pay in the past year.
The discounter is currently the only supermarket to pay for breaks, which for the average store worker is worth an additional £927 annually.
This follows a wage increase for 7,000 warehouse workers in January, who received a new minimum rate of £13.18 an hour, up from £11.48 a year prior.
Asda
In February, Asda invested a record £141m in giving a 10% increase to hourly-paid store colleagues.
In April, rates rose to £11 per hour and as of this month, pay for retail colleagues hit £11.11 nationally and £12.28 inside the M25.
This increase will benefit more than 115,000 colleagues working across Asda’s 600 plus stores.
In the same month, the supermarket offered employees an advance on their pay to help with the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis.
Having teamed up with financial wellbeing app, Wagestream, Asda’s colleagues can access up to 50% of their earned contracted pay when they choose.
Tesco
Over the past year, Tesco has made its biggest-ever investment in colleague pay of £450m, with an increase totalling more than a 15% pay rise.
In April, the leading retailer invested £230m to boost its hourly rate to £11.02.
However, this increases to £11.75 in outer London and £11.95 in inner London.
Sainsbury’s
In January, Sainsbury’s invested £205m into pay, which staff received from February.
Hourly retail colleague pay increased from £10.25 to £11.00 per hour and from £11.30 to £11.95 per hour in London.
This equated to a 10% rise for frontline hourly-paid colleagues in the past year and a 38% jump over six years.
Sainsbury’s has also been offering store and depot colleagues free food during shifts since 2022.
As of this week, the supermarket extended this indefinitely, and has said it will be offering more regular colleague discount uplifts over the summer months.
M&S
In February, M&S raised pay for colleagues in stores outside of London to £10.90, and to £12.05 for workers in London stores.
This represented a 20% increase in pay over the past two years and an almost £60m investment.
It follows a £46.5m investment in store colleague pay during the 2022/23 financial year.
M&S employees also receive a package of benefits, which includes a 20% discount and a colleague share save scheme.
Waitrose
As of 1 April, Waitrose raised the hourly base wage nationally to a minimum of £10.50 per hour and to a minimum if £11.72 per hour within the M25.
In December, the upmarket retailer’s full-time staff also received a one-off payment of £500 to further support them through the cost-of-living crisis.
Morrisons
In June 2022, Morrisons became the highest paying UK supermarket for store staff, offering a minimum of £10.20 an hour.
The deal meant that since 2014, the hourly pay rate for the grocer’s store customer assistants had seen an increase of more than 40%.
Earlier this year, the UK government announced the single largest increase to the living wage since it was introduced, boosting the national living wage up by 9.7%, to £10.42.
As of 3 April 2023, hourly-paid staff at Morrisons have been paid in line with the national living wage.
