Aldi is offering graduates a £44,000 starting salary as it hopes to tempt top students away from law firms and the City.
The budget supermarket is spending big on Britain’s bright young workers by offering a company car and competing with lucrative pay packets.
Aldi’s wages have seen it equal packages offered by leading legal practices including Allen & Overy, Hogan Lovells and Slaughter & May, where grads also start on £44,000.
Aldi is offering graduates a £44,000 starting salary as it hopes to tempt top students away from law firms and the City
The German chain is not the only supermarket willing to invest in the nation’s students.
Lidl, a fellow low-priced supermarket, pays graduates £40,000 while delivery giant Amazon pays around £35,000.
On the graduates page of its website, Aldi says: ‘You’ve probably heard that we give our graduates a fantastic package (including an Audi A4) and that it’s ”really hard work”.
‘The programme lasts for 12 months and, yes, it’s tough…. By week 14, you could hold the keys to at least one store. Eventually, you could be running your own multi-million pound business.’
The Graduate Market analyses interviews with 20,000 final-year students about what companies they feel offer the best opportunities.
Its report compiles opinions on the top 100 employers and in 2002, Aldi was ranked as 65th, but has been in the top five since 2013.
Lidl, a fellow low-priced supermarket, pays graduates £40,000 while delivery giant Amazon pays around £35,000
The chain is now third, behind PwC and the Civil Service.
While Teach First, Google, Deloitte, NHS, KPMG, Ernst & Young and GSK are all trailing the supermarket.
Martin Birchall, managing director at High Fliers research, told the Times: ‘People assume the best starting salaries are in the City or at law firms.
‘But Aldi are one of several in the retail sector who are really investing heavily in their new graduates.’