Why do so many Spaniards want to work for Mercadona supermarket?
Believe it or not, working in Spain's biggest supermarket chain is 'the dream' for thousands of Spaniards.
If you live in Spain, it's almost statistically impossible that you haven't stepped foot in a Mercadona store - Spain's biggest supermarket chain.
They are everywhere, with 1,619 stories across Spain and another 49 in Portugal. That means it needs a lot of employees, and in 2023 Mercadona reached a new milestone, crossing the threshold of 100,000 members of staff.
The chain has 104,000 employees in total, 98,700 in Spain and 5,300 in Portugal, having created 5,000 jobs in the last financial year alone.
Many more thousands of Spaniards would love a job there. Though for some readers from other countries the idea of aspiring to work in a supermarket might strike them as not being very ambitious, the reality is that many people in Spain, including recent university graduates, have it as their primary employment goal.
So why is that?
Compared to other Spanish companies, and the somewhat unpredictable, lowly paid labour market in Spain, jobs at Mercadona offer stable employment with above average salaries.
In 2023 the company boosted both basic salary and the existing bonus structure with increases in line with the CPI, meaning the Mercadona minimum salary now stands at €1,553 gross per month, a not insignificant 17 percent higher than the Spain's Interprofessional Minimum Wage (SMI).
The company also offers career progression to its employees. In 2023, Mercadona spent €110 million on training programmes for its staff, which resulted in more than 3.4 million hours of training. A total of 2,221 workers were promoted to positions of greater responsibility.
Surveys of recent university graduates in Spain show that Mercadona consistently comes out on top as the most desired employer.
READ ALSO: Ten unique jobs you can only do in Spain
According to data from the 4th edition of 'Merco Talento Universitario España', the supermarket is thought of as the most attractive company to work for in Spain, followed by Inditex, Google, Amazon, Santander, Coca-Cola, Apple, Microsoft, Ikea and BBVA.
Of other well known Spanish and European brands and companies, six more appeared in the top 100: El Corte Inglés (15th), Decathlon (26th), Carrefour (34th), Mango (42nd), Leroy Merlin (43rd) and Lidl (49th).
Another factor that attracts many Spaniards to Mercadona is the incremental pay rises you get the longer you stay. So not only is the job stable, something sadly in short supply in Spain, but the pay goes up year by year, usually by around an average of €100 more per month for every year worked.
It's this stability and steady pay rises that attract workers and keep them loyal.
But it's not just young graduates, older Spaniards also dream of working at Mercadona. Looking at the demographic breakdown of the Mercadona workforce, the highest percentage of people (39 percent) are aged between 40 and 49, with 29 percent aged between 30 and 39.
Sixteen percent are over 50 and another 16 percent are young people aged up to 29. The vast majority of the workforce (82 percent) work in store, 12 percent in logistics and the remaining 6 percent in office jobs. 61 percent of the workforce is female.
This phenomenon of apparent conformism and desire for a pretty bog-standard job is not unlike the desire thousands of Spaniards have for becoming civil servants, funcionarios. In both cases, it says a lot about what Spaniards value when it comes to work.
READ ALSO: Why so many people in Spain 'dream' of becoming civil servants
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If you live in Spain, it's almost statistically impossible that you haven't stepped foot in a Mercadona store - Spain's biggest supermarket chain.
They are everywhere, with 1,619 stories across Spain and another 49 in Portugal. That means it needs a lot of employees, and in 2023 Mercadona reached a new milestone, crossing the threshold of 100,000 members of staff.
The chain has 104,000 employees in total, 98,700 in Spain and 5,300 in Portugal, having created 5,000 jobs in the last financial year alone.
Many more thousands of Spaniards would love a job there. Though for some readers from other countries the idea of aspiring to work in a supermarket might strike them as not being very ambitious, the reality is that many people in Spain, including recent university graduates, have it as their primary employment goal.
So why is that?
Compared to other Spanish companies, and the somewhat unpredictable, lowly paid labour market in Spain, jobs at Mercadona offer stable employment with above average salaries.
In 2023 the company boosted both basic salary and the existing bonus structure with increases in line with the CPI, meaning the Mercadona minimum salary now stands at €1,553 gross per month, a not insignificant 17 percent higher than the Spain's Interprofessional Minimum Wage (SMI).
The company also offers career progression to its employees. In 2023, Mercadona spent €110 million on training programmes for its staff, which resulted in more than 3.4 million hours of training. A total of 2,221 workers were promoted to positions of greater responsibility.
Surveys of recent university graduates in Spain show that Mercadona consistently comes out on top as the most desired employer.
READ ALSO: Ten unique jobs you can only do in Spain
According to data from the 4th edition of 'Merco Talento Universitario España', the supermarket is thought of as the most attractive company to work for in Spain, followed by Inditex, Google, Amazon, Santander, Coca-Cola, Apple, Microsoft, Ikea and BBVA.
Of other well known Spanish and European brands and companies, six more appeared in the top 100: El Corte Inglés (15th), Decathlon (26th), Carrefour (34th), Mango (42nd), Leroy Merlin (43rd) and Lidl (49th).
Another factor that attracts many Spaniards to Mercadona is the incremental pay rises you get the longer you stay. So not only is the job stable, something sadly in short supply in Spain, but the pay goes up year by year, usually by around an average of €100 more per month for every year worked.
It's this stability and steady pay rises that attract workers and keep them loyal.
But it's not just young graduates, older Spaniards also dream of working at Mercadona. Looking at the demographic breakdown of the Mercadona workforce, the highest percentage of people (39 percent) are aged between 40 and 49, with 29 percent aged between 30 and 39.
Sixteen percent are over 50 and another 16 percent are young people aged up to 29. The vast majority of the workforce (82 percent) work in store, 12 percent in logistics and the remaining 6 percent in office jobs. 61 percent of the workforce is female.
This phenomenon of apparent conformism and desire for a pretty bog-standard job is not unlike the desire thousands of Spaniards have for becoming civil servants, funcionarios. In both cases, it says a lot about what Spaniards value when it comes to work.
READ ALSO: Why so many people in Spain 'dream' of becoming civil servants
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