Ikea in Portugal has followed the lead set by German food retailer Lidl in December 2015 and is increasing the minimum wage paid to its workers to €600 a month.
Ikea Portugal said the move is for its full-time employees and represents an average wage rise of 2.38%.
The Swedish retailer said the rise in its starting wage is ahead of the government’s decision to raise the minimum wage for Portuguese workers to €530. Ikea pointed out also that its rise is way above inflation which it estimates at 2.38% in 2015.
"For us at Ikea, business development only makes sense together with the development of our people. The results we have been getting are not only a result of the Ikea concept and fantastic acceptance of the Portuguese to the business model of our company," commented the director of Ikea in Portugal, Christiane Thomas.
"The results are, above all, thanks to the excellent work of our 1,500 employees. This is another of the ways to recognise and repay that commitment, especially of those at low starting wages. This decision comes in the wake of our strategy to position Ikea as one of the best global employers," added Thomas.
The employees of Ikea in Portugal also benefit from "a wide range of social benefits, health insurance and life insurance for permanent employees, canteens with reduced prices, in store medical service, maternity benefits and employees discounts."
The IKEA store being built in the Algarve between Loulé and the Via do Infante motorway is just part of a larger development on that site that includes a shopping mall and a stores zone where ‘3,000 direct and indirect jobs’ will have be created by the time the project finally is running in late 2017.
The IKEA store itself should open before the other shops in early 2017.
The original target opening date was 2014, delayed by ultimately unsuccessful local business associations and environmental bodies.
The then deputy Prime Minister Paulo Portas was at the ground-breaking ceremony last August and said the Ikea store will create 250 jobs in Loulé and "many others in the shops and at the shopping centre," and that the company has established partnerships with Portuguese suppliers up north, naming three furniture factories, a porcelain factory and a mattress maker.
