Aldi is raising pay for store colleagues for the second time this year, extending its position as the UK’s best-paying supermarket.

Its new national minimum rate of £12.40 an hour for Store Assistants and Deputy Store Managers is the highest level of entry pay ever to be paid by a British supermarket. The supermarket became the first UK supermarket to pay all store and warehouse colleagues at least £12.00 an hour nationally, and £13.55 within the M25, in February.

The new pay increases will see the hourly rate of Store Assistants and Deputy Store Managers nationally rise from £12.00 to £12.40, and from £13.55 to £13.65 for those within the M25.

Aldi also remains the only supermarket to offer paid breaks, which for the average store colleague is worth more than £900 a year. The latest increase takes Aldi’s investment in pay so far this year to £79m.

It is also planning to create 5,500 new jobs in the UK this year. Giles Hurley, Chief Executive Officer of Aldi UK and Ireland, said:

“We firmly believe that our colleagues are the best in the business, so it is only right that they remain the best-paid and we are committed to never being beaten on pay by any other supermarket."

“Our Store Operations colleagues play an integral part in our ever-increasing popularity among shoppers and our continued investment in their pay is another way to thank them for the role they play in making Aldi what it is today.”

Aldi is the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket and has more than 1,000 stores, 11 regional distribution centres and 45,000 colleagues across Britain.