Grocery retail starter salaries soar 15% in response to minimum wage hikes
Forecourt deli managers now earn up to €5,000 more as revealed by Excel Recruitment’s 2024 Salary Guide
Print30 November 2023
The growing demand for food-to-go in Ireland has helped to bolster the fortunes of those working in forecourt deli’s, with forecourt deli managers now earning as much as €5,000 more than last year while forecourt trainee managers have witnessed salary increases of approximately €2,000.
This is according to the findings of Excel Recruitment’s latest Grocery Retail Salary Guide 2024, which tracks salaries and trends across the grocery retail sector.
Overall, salaries for entry level roles in grocery retail have gone up by 15pc over the last 24 months – largely due to increases in the minimum wage, according to the guide.
The research by Excel Recruitment suggests that the 21% increase in the national minimum wage over the last two years has skewed salaries in the sector, often increasing the wages of lower-paid workers, whereas those of more experienced staff in certain roles have remained stagnant or even seen some reductions. In addition, it has prompted many grocery retailers to ‘think outside the box’ in order to attract and retain talent, with reduced working hours increasingly on the table as employers explore non-monetary work perks. The recruitment experts report that some of the larger retailers have even looked at rental residential accommodation investment as a way to attract a much-needed workforce.
In Excel Recruitment’s latest Grocery Retail Salary Guide, notable increases in earnings were observed. A forecourt deli manager with one year’s experience is projected to earn €35,000 in 2024, marking a 16% rise from the previous year’s €30,000. Similarly, a fresh food manager with a decade or more of experience in a large supermarket can anticipate a salary increase to €48,000, up from €45,000 last year. Butchers and bakers have experienced wage hikes ranging from 5% to 10% over the past year. For instance, a baker manager with one year’s experience in a large supermarket can now expect €40,000, compared to €38,000 last year. Deli managers in large supermarkets with one year’s experience are projected to earn €37,000, up from €33,000 in 2023. Conversely, store managers in small supermarkets have witnessed a decrease in pay, with a one-year-experience store manager earning €40,000 this year, down from €45,000 last year.
Nikki Murran, director of grocery retail, Excel Recruitment, said: “We have noticed that in 2023, employees with less experience have felt a bump in pay. We believe that much of this development is due to the increase in the national minimum wage in January 2023 as this has had a knock-on effect across the board for junior-level management, trainee, and fresh food roles in the grocery sector. This has sometimes led to cases where junior managers are only being paid slightly more than the teams they are managing. With the national minimum wage set to increase to €12.70 an hour on 1 January, 2024, we expect this trend to continue into 2024 and beyond.
“The last couple of years have seen a special focus on work-life balance and working hours. Many big retailers have reduced their working hours from 48 or 45 weekly hours to 39, with 40 hours fast becoming the new industry norm. Small benefits such as vouchers, “birthday days”, and discounts are becoming more important to candidates when accepting job offers, causing retailers to think creatively around their entire package on offer. A number of retailers are also expanding their portfolio into the rental market in order to secure accommodation for candidates coming from overseas, or indeed relocating throughout Ireland” Murran concluded.
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