Budget supermarket Lidl has announced plans to adopt the Living Wage Foundation, surpassing the £7.50 living wage set by the government.
5,500 employees of the German discount supermarket will benefit from the change, receiving a new hourly rate of £8.45, which will increase to £9.50 in March 2017.
Lidl is the first supermarket to adopt the voluntary rates.
Last month, the Living Wage Foundation lifted its recommendation for the voluntary rate from £8.25 to £8.45 outside London and from £9.40 to £9.75 in the capital.
Speaking of the government’s Living wage, the Institute for Fiscal Studies on Thursday warned that British workers face a “dreadful” decade full of austerity and no real wage growth.
Lidl Director Nan Gibson said:
“We recognise the contribution of each and every colleague within the business and we feel it’s important to celebrate our achievements together, so it fills me with pride that our colleagues are among the best paid in the supermarket sector, and it’s absolutely deserved for the commitment and value they bring to the company every day.”
Katherine Chapman, the director of the Living Wage Foundation commented:
“Lidl’s commitment to pay their staff the new real living wage rates is fantastic news and an acknowledgement of what we have always believed and advocated – that it is possible to pay the real living wage if you are a supermarket in the UK.”
She went further to say that the German supermarket should now guarantee the real Living Wage to all sub-contracted staff, such as cleaners.
Ikea, Oliver Bonas, Burberry (LON:BRBY) and Majestic Wines (LON:WINE) are retailers who are all accredited to the Living Wage Foundation but no other supermarkets have signed up yet.
Lidl has said that since offering the living wage rate, there has been a 20 percent increase in job applications over the past 12 months. The company now aims to recruit over 630 people for permanent positions before Christmas.