Tesco Ireland has announced a 3% pay increase of most of its hourly paid workers from January 1.
This means the average Tesco worker, from January 1, will be paid €17.61 per hour, well ahead of the proposed new national living wage due to be introduced in 2026.
The new pay hike is part of the supermarket group’s €14m investment in pay and benefits and builds on similar increases announced last year.
Tesco has an Irish workforce of 13,500 people.
The company has today also announced an increase in paid maternity, adoptive and paternity leave.
Fully paid maternity leave will almost double from 14 weeks to 26 weeks, and fully paid adoptive leave will increase from 14 weeks to 24 weeks for employees with over 12 months’ service.
Tesco also said that fully paid paternity leave will also double to two weeks for those working with the company over six months.
Along with these pay and benefit enhancements, Tesco will continue to offer their regular workers benefits such as the annual bonus, annual €2,000 colleague discount, free Virtual GP service and other benefits.
Tesco Ireland’s People Director Maurice Kelly said today’s investment in pay and benefits, coupled with the investment for 2024, brings over €30m worth of enhancements to its colleagues in just two years.
“We are particularly committed to supporting our colleagues during major life events and becoming a parent is one of the most significant examples of that,” he said.
“We are really striving to be industry-leaders in this space and to this end, I am very pleased to announce this increase in our family leave,” he added.
As part of its commitment to supporting staff in milestone life events, it was also the first grocery retailer in the country to introduce paid Domestic Violence leave, in addition to paid leave for early pregnancy loss.