Lidl introduce living wage

[Ignitionnet]

Lidl has said it will become the first UK supermarket to implement the minimum wage as recommended by the Living Wage Foundation.

From October, Lidl UK employees will earn a minimum of £8.20 an hour across England, Scotland and Wales, and £9.35 an hour in London, the supermarket said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34281559

Lidl. Just let that sink in for a minute.

Other supermarkets need to take a long, hard look at their business models and ask why Lidl are able to pay their staff more and stay in business while they rely on the taxpayer topping up pay through tax credits.

Businesses in general need to. Our costs of living aren't the lowest and wages should match up, not need taxpayer top up.

I find myself wondering if things like tax credits are there to raise employment while keeping productivity lower. Companies hire more people to do the same work, pay them less, the taxpayer makes up the difference, some of the workers work as I suspect I would if I were being paid so little I had to rely on welfare to live.

[Chrysalis]

lidi is cheaper than the likes of tesco, asda and co also.

So they charge less and pay more.

I think we know the answer as to why.

[denphone]

Lets hope many follow suit as its better to pay them higher wages then for the state to top up their earnings.

[Taf]

Will ALDI follow?

[Osem]

One of the reasons the likes of Lidl and Aldi can charge less because they tend to occupy much smaller sites in poorer locations and offer far fewer ranges coupled with lower stock levels.

As regards the living wage:

Sainsbury's responded by saying its benefits were comparable, because Lidl did not pay staff for time spent taking breaks.

It said that if breaks were included, one of its full-time employees on its new standard hourly rate of £7.36 would earn about £12 a week less than a Lidl employee on the new rate of £8.20.

In addition, Sainsbury's said it also gave staff bonuses amounting to £50m last year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34281559

Furthermore from what I've seen of staff within the discounters we visit, they tend to be a lot busier and always leave the tills when shelves need to be filled or whatever. I know who I'd prefer to work for but I guess £12 a week is a lot of money to some people.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Taf

Will ALDI follow?

One would imagine so.

[Chrysalis]

isem are you trying to say tesco and asda dont have low stock levels? every single week I have substitutes due to out of stock

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

isem are you trying to say tesco and asda dont have low stock levels? every single week I have substitutes due to out of stock

I have no idea whether you're referring to the stores or online ordering however I pointed out that the likes if Lidl and Aldi carry relatively few stock lines and because their stores tend to be small with hardly any stockroom space, what they have on the shelves tends to be all they have until the next delivery. We have 3 Lidls and an Aldi store within a reasonable distance and at certain times when deliveries have been delayed for whatever reason, ALL of them have suffered with lots of empty shelves and freezer/chiller cabinets, sometimes ridiculously so to the point where we've walked out.

I have never seen that at a major supermarket, except during freak weather events etc. where deliveries of things like bread and milk have been badly affected. If your Asda or Tesco runs out of Heinz baked beans or Perrier water at least there'll be several alternatives (branded and own label) available and that you won't find in a discounter - you'll find an empty shelf and have to buy processed peas instead of beans. You pays yer money and takes yer choice but you can't really compare apples and pears.

The fact remains that the discounters stock a small fraction of the lines carried by a decent sized supermarket so if you value choice that's where you get it.

To get back on topic it will be interesting to see if any other retailer will do the same.

[Osem]

It's a hard one because upping wages at the bottom without giving roughly equivalent rises particularly to those just above the living wage threshold probably won't go down well. I recall many a strike called due to eroded pay differentials and although I don't see that happening again I do feel a lot of people will feel aggrieved that they've quite possibly worked for the company longer and suddenly find they're earning little more than newcomers.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Osem

It's a hard one because upping wages at the bottom without giving roughly equivalent rises particularly to those just above the living wage threshold probably won't go down well. I recall many a strike called due to eroded pay differentials and although I don't see that happening again I do feel a lot of people will feel aggrieved that they've quite possibly worked for the company longer and suddenly find they're earning little more than newcomers.

Well no-one that I'm aware of took action when those at the very top of FTSE 100 companies went from 'earning' 50-60 times the 'average' salary in the company to 160 times and rising, so who knows?

If companies can afford to pay the CEOs in some cases over 1,000 times the median UK wage, in the case of Tesco a mere ~900 times the average Tesco worker's wage, I'm sure they can afford to pay those at lower levels some more.

JP Morgan that well known house of communism reckon a ratio of ~1:20 is more reasonable.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Well no-one that I'm aware of took action when those at the very top of FTSE 100 companies went from 'earning' 50-60 times the 'average' salary in the company to 160 times and rising, so who knows?

If companies can afford to pay the CEOs in some cases over 1,000 times the median UK wage, in the case of Tesco a mere ~900 times the average Tesco worker's wage, I'm sure they can afford to pay those at lower levels some more.

JP Morgan that well known house of communism reckon a ratio of ~1:20 is more reasonable.

Even Donald Trump agrees that CEO's are paid too much Pity Dave and his (Eton) chums disagree .. no wait ... don't they have a place waiting on the board when they "retire" from politics so best not upset the "captains of industry", eh?

[mrmistoffelees]

Great PR for Lidl being the first to do so ahead of the required time, 2020? Iirc?

My shopping habits have dramatically changed over the past few years from using asda and tesco for everything to now using aldi and Lidl and then going to Makro for bulk buys of ariel lenor etc.

However having come back from hols recently it's become apparent just how badly We in the UK are ripped off in terms of food prices

[denphone]

Originally Posted by mrmistoffelees

Great PR for Lidl being the first to do so ahead of the required time, 2020? Iirc?

My shopping habits have dramatically changed over the past few years from using asda and tesco for everything to now using aldi and Lidl and then going to Makro for bulk buys of ariel lenor etc.

However having come back from hols recently it's become apparent just how badly We in the UK are ripped off in terms of food prices

Not just food prices Mr M as there are many other items that can be picked up from abroad at half the price as my parents have just gone to America and they can get shoes which are £80 over here but are £30 to £40 in the states.

[Osem]

Economies of scale and the effect of different tax regimes.