Labour shortage: ‘wage bomb’ from Aldi

As we reported before, labour shortage causes many problems in Hungary and affect almost every sector of the economy. In fact, commerce is among the most affected ones. The reason is simple: more and more work abroad for better wages. As a result, many supermarket chains have decided lately to increase salaries to keep their workforce. However, according to Origo.hu, Aldi dropped a ‘wage bomb’ at the beginning of the year. The company announced that from 2018 on each experienced shop assistant will receive 353 thousand (EUR 1140) monthly gross salary.

Labour shortage causes wage increase

Because of the high employment rate in Hungary, it is becoming harder and harder to find new employees. Thus, companies compete for the skilled workforce and try to attract them with better offers. In this regard, discount supermarket chains are the traditional leaders, but Aldi overtakes even them.

To start with, they offer equal salaries for 25, 30 and 35 hours/week part-time jobs in the whole country. Also, According to the announcement of the company they announced that from 2018 on each shop assistant will receive 272 thousand (EUR 882) per month as starting gross salary.

However, this wage will become

significantly higher after 10 years of experience.

The most significant salary in the sector

Also, they do not mention that experience should be gained in an Aldi shop. They try to attract those experienced shop assistants who are working at the moment for their competitors. For these people they offer

353 thousand HUF (EUR 1140) monthly gross wage which is outstanding in Hungary.

This is why Aldi is the market leader among supermarket chains. Of course, salary is not everything since the company provides fringe benefits for their employees, too. These can be under or above 10 thousand HUF (EUR 33) per month depending, for example, on the number of extra working hours.

To sum up, Aldi gives an average of 15% wage increase for its shop assistants. Stock clerks receive only a 10% rise, and they will get 250 thousand HUF (EUR 810) for a full-time job. However, they get fringe benefits as well, so their actual income is higher.

Photo: Aldi Hungary Facebook

Source: origo.hu