“Salaries above the sector average”

A few days ago, Juan Roig, founder of Mercadona, took the floor before 1,500 businessmen from the mass consumption sector (AECOC) to claim the pride of making money leading a company, but also championing a message that has surprised many: the defense of employee well-being. “You need the worker to feel well treated as a human being, and well treated,” he said.

Beyond the discursive epic of the moment, Mercadona supports the words of its founder with data: “We offer salaries above the sector average,” they assure in a corporate statement. That can be your best business strategy in the long term.

Juan Roig: Richard Branson in the Spanish way. The millionaire founder of Virgin published in your X profile a memorable phrase: “Take care of your employees and they will take care of your business.” That is, in essence, the message that Juan Roig gave to the businessmen who gathered in his presentation within the framework of the 40th AECOC Congress in Valencia that was held in the new stadium that bears his name.

“You can buy the hands, the heart and brain you need for the worker to feel well treated as a human being. And well treated is not doing what the worker wants, but what the worker needs,” said the businessman who claimed to be very proud of his staff.

Well-being starts with your pocket: your salary. According to Roig in his presentation, “a Mercadona manager A earns 2,100 euros net per month,” the data provided by Mercadona they confirm it and they place their employees among the best paid in the large supermarket segment. According what was published by News Worka manager A (the largest category in Mercadona’s workforce) earns:

Incentives. However, the most differential thing is in the bonuses and incentives for objectives, which can add one or two additional monthly payments to the set if they have been in the company for more than five years. Altogether, the data confirm Juan Roig’s statement. A category A manager with more than five years of seniority can receive a monthly net salary of around 2,100 euros, being between 27% and 72% above the SMI.

How the rest of the supermarkets pay. If we compare these salaries with those of other supermarkets, we find that Lidl, its main competitor, offers base salaries slightly higher than those of Mercadona, with 1,539 euros net per month, according to comparative data by Skello. However, the bonuses and incentives are not as generous, so the total sum is slightly behind.

The rest of the supermarkets, such as Carrefour, do distance themselves with base salaries of 1,387 euros for the majority of their store staff and few incentives that increase that salary.

Playing attrition in an environment of labor shortage. As and as highlighted María Miralles, senior partner of the retail sector in Iberia at the consulting firm McKinsey, in statements to financial times, “Employee retention becomes an increasingly important business imperative. If a rival supermarket chain loses a qualified fishmonger or butcher, finding a replacement on the high street is almost impossible.”

This analysis perfectly summarizes the “Mercadona Model“in which they bet on better salaries than their competition and encourage the long-term stability of the workforce to make it an attractive asset to attract talent and avoid let them go to their competition.

Bet on training. With an inverted demographic pyramid, staff shortages are going to be a growing problem, so taking care of employees is no longer going to be an option, at least to remain competitive in a expansion scenario to Portugal like the one proposed by Mercadona.

According what was published through the medium specialized in food retail Food, Retail & ServiceMercadona invested 128 million euros in training in 2024 with four million training hours for its staff. This implies an individual investment of 1,164 euros per employee and 1,894 people promoted to positions of greater responsibility. That is, Mercadona not only seeks recruit your qualified personnel with better salaries than its direct competition, but also establishes that talent by offering them training and an internal professional career.

As Elena Orden, spokesperson for Merco in Spain, pointed out in the article in Financial Times: “In Spain, we have an inverted pyramid in terms of the active population. So, if you want to have the best workers, you need to offer them what others do not offer them and prioritize their well-being.”

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Image | Mercadona