Aldi is to give more than 3,000 employees a pay rise, overtaking Lidl to become the UK’s highest-paying supermarket.

From next month, Aldi staff will earn £8.53 per hour, raised to £9.75 per hour for those who live in London.

This is higher than the Government’s national living wage rate of £7.20 an hour. It even surpasses the Living Wage Foundation’s voluntary rate of £8.25 per hour.

A total of 3,356 Aldi employees in the UK will benefit from the pay increases.

Aldi claimed its rate of pay will be the highest in the retail sector, beating fellow German discounter Lidl’s plan to offer staff £8.45 per hour nationally from March.

The announcement comes just a few months after Chancellor Philip Hammond said the mandatory national living wage rate will increase to £7.50 at the beginning of April – 10p less than expected.

Matthew Barnes, chief executive officer for Aldi UK, said: “We recognise the valuable contribution that our thousands of store employees make every day. Their dedication and commitment is a key reason why Aldi is the UK’s fastest-growing supermarket.

“We employ the best people in retail and invest in their training to enable them to carry out a range of different roles in store.”

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Mr Barnes added: “We remain committed to being the best supermarket employer in Britain. This means that we will continue to provide employees with rates of pay and benefits that are the highest in the supermarket sector.”

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The retailer, which is currently recruiting 4,000 permanent roles across the UK, will open its 700th store next month and remains on course to achieve its target of 1,000 stores by 2022.