GERMAN supermarket chain Lidl has announced plans to raise the salaries of over 1800 of its employees in Scotland.

The pay increase comes as the Living Wage Foundation’s “real living wage”, which the company has signed up to, grows to £9 an hour.

Lidl’s UK CEO Christian Hartnagel welcomed the pay rises.

“Lidl is an incredibly exciting business to be a part of right now, with sales continuing to climb and new stores opening every week,” he said. “Our employees are amongst the most talented and hard working in the industry, and we are committed to supporting them both inside and outside of the workplace.

“With our new warehouse opening at Eurocentral next year, and a further five set to open in the coming years, along with our pipeline of new stores, we look forward to welcoming more people into the Lidl team.”

In 2015, Lidl was the first supermarket in the UK to sign up to the scheme.

The store’s latest pay rises in Scotland come as part of the brand’s £8 million nationwide investment across Britain and marks the fourth year of salary growth for its hourly paid employees. The rates match those calculated by the Living Wage Foundation which equates to an increase of almost 25% since 2015.

The move, which will come into effect from March 1 2019, means that Lidl employees will benefit from pay that is almost 10% higher than the UK Government’s “National Living Wage”, announced in the latest Budget.

Entry-level wages at the company will increase from ÂŁ8.75 to ÂŁ9.00 per hour and nearly 2000 Scots workers will benefit from the change.

Next year, Lidl is expected to open its new ÂŁ70m distribution centre at Eurocentral, close to Motherwell.

The centre is set to bring in 360 jobs to the area and will be one of the company’s largest in the UK.