Spanish food giant Mercadona has announced an unprecedented financial package for its 112,000 employees in Spain and Portugal. The company has allocated over one billion euros for profit-sharing bonuses, salary adjustments, and reduced working hours. Most employees received a one-time net transfer of over 7,000 euros. This initiative aims to improve staff purchasing power amid rising inflation and enhance the efficiency of the company's business model.

Billion-euro social package

Total expenditures on bonuses, raises, and extended leave exceeded 1 billion euros in 2026.

High bonuses for the workforce

70% of employees received a net bonus of 5,400 euros for seniority exceeding four years.

More days off

Employees gained an additional week of paid leave, increasing the annual leave entitlement to 37 days.

Mercadona, the leader of the Spanish retail market, has carried out a large-scale profit redistribution operation covering its entire workforce of over 112,000 people. The foundation of this package is the payment of 780 million euros in performance-based bonuses. The reward mechanism was linked to seniority: employees with less than four years of service received the equivalent of two additional salaries, while nearly 70% of the staff with longer tenure received as many as three monthly payments. In practice, this means experienced employees received net transfers of 7,250 euros in February, consisting of their regular salary plus a 5,400 euro bonus. Simultaneously with the bonus payments, the company implemented a systemic salary increase to compensate for the effects of inflation. In Spain, wages rose by 2.9%, while in Portugal by 2.2%, generating a permanent annual cost for the company's budget of 125 million euros. CPI remains a key reference point for the company's wage policy, which for years has focused on employment stability and staff loyalty. Mercadona has for years applied the "total quality" policy, introduced by Juan Roig in the 1990s, which assumes that employee satisfaction directly translates into customer satisfaction and financial results. The third pillar of the reform is the improvement of rest conditions. Starting in 2026, the annual leave entitlement has been extended from the current 30 to 37 days per year. According to management estimates, this additional week of leave for the entire workforce represents an annual financial burden of around 100 million euros. However, management argues that investing in employee well-being is essential to maintain a nearly 30% market share. At the same time, the latest data indicates the enormous scale of the company's ecosystem – its suppliers invested 1.7 billion euros in the last year alone, creating a powerful industrial cluster supporting the private-label model. „Este es un esfuerzo conjunto que confirma que nuestro modelo de gestión invierte y apuesta por la satisfacción del trabajador.” (This is a joint effort that confirms our management model invests in and bets on worker satisfaction.) — Juan Roig

Mentioned People

  • Juan Roig — President and main shareholder of the Mercadona chain