Anyone working as a Department Manager in a supermarket?

[Pilchard_Adams]

Would you care to give a rough estimate of your annual salary? PM if you are worried about privacy... Pretty sure a friend of mine is being ripped off. Either that, or retail is a joke pay wise.

Basic job outline -

In charge of 90 staff, many school casuals.
Does weekly rosters for staff
Handles money every day, including deliveries and pick ups from the chubb trucks
On call all retail hours. Weekends, late weeknights, and has to go into work to sort problems out quite often
Runs entire front end of a large supermarket, and every aspect of that operation comes under this persons job decription

Paywise, this persons salary has gone up about $2000 over the last 3 years.

Works closer to 48 hours a week when salary is only for 40 hours

Apparently the union is virtually non-existant in this workplace. Management encourage young people to ignore the unions offers to sign up, and label union members as trouble makers. This person has been working there for well over 9 years and not once have they been involved in EBA discussions or voting. Im guessing $15 pay rise last year is only something like 1.5%

Rip off?

 

[Scotland]

$45-50k pa would be my guess.

 

[Selective Retention]

$45-50k pa would be my guess.

About right, maybe less for front end supervisor I reckon.

If you are a proper department manager e.g. grocery you are looking at a starting salary of 55k. Store size comes into it too, bigger store more coin, smaller store less coin.

 

[cleveland]

What supermarket chain are we talking about

 

[Pilchard_Adams]

Its a major one in SA, very big store.

 

[matt_897]

$45-50k pa would be my guess.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Job description sounds right too, you don't get into the decent salaries until the very top few at the store.

 

[DANGEROUS32]

f n v managers at my work are on probably around 40K

 

[Scotland]

You can look up the relevant EBAs for this sort of thing on the interweb.

Department managers are essentially paid as full time staff with a loading to account for being in charge.

$20/hr x 40 hours a week x 52 weeks + say 20% is $49,920.

It's not great money but with all due respect it's not a great job. If you compare that to the hours, conditions, training etc. required to be a nurse and think it's unfair then it puts it into perspective a little.

 

[cleveland]

You can look up the relevant EBAs for this sort of thing on the interweb.

Department managers are essentially paid as full time staff with a loading to account for being in charge.

$20/hr x 40 hours a week x 52 weeks + say 20% is $49,920.

It's not great money but with all due respect it's not a great job. If you compare that to the hours, conditions, training etc. required to be a nurse and think it's unfair then it puts it into perspective a little.

Coles pay their department managers like that

Woolies pay their department managers a salary plus bonuses

 

[Scotland]

Coles pay their department managers like that

Woolies pay their department managers a salary plus bonuses

Whether you're paid 10-20% more by the hour or paid a salary based on 40 hours a week + 10-20% more is by the by.

The point is that is the ball park for salary values. You're not going to get a gig in charge of 10 or 20 shelf stackers, service assistants etc. on $15/hr and be paid $90k.

If I had my time over as a student supermarket worker I would transfer to the distribution centre. Good money to be made there if you have a small amount of common sense, reasonable fitness and want to work fast.

 

[cleveland]

Fresh produce dept manager
$65k + 15% super + up to 20% bonus (depending on kpi results)

2-3 percent pay review every year

total package available is $84k

in charge of up to 10 staff
40 hours a week

must atleast work one weekend day a week/fortnight

 

[Scotland]

And the fruit and veg is still s**t!

 

[dancingtocalvin]

Fresh produce dept manager
$65k + 15% super + up to 20% bonus (depending on kpi results)

2-3 percent pay review every year

total package available is $84k

in charge of up to 10 staff
40 hours a week

must atleast work one weekend day a week/fortnight

That sounds too high for a Fruit & Veg Manager. According to this Fruit & Veg mgr tops out around $60k, must be a HUGE store to get that kind of coin.
www.thefuturerich.com.au/career/the-ultimate-pay-scale-guide-for-supermarket-and-big-box-retailer-jobs-in-australia

 

[sabre_ac]

$45-50k pa would be my guess.

Surely not, it was more than that 6 years ago when I was casual in one of the chains.

 

[sabre_ac]

That sounds too high for a Fruit & Veg Manager. According to this Fruit & Veg mgr tops out around $60k, must be a HUGE store to get that kind of coin.
www.thefuturerich.com.au/career/the-ultimate-pay-scale-guide-for-supermarket-and-big-box-retailer-jobs-in-australia

Most department managers have probably done around 3-5 years of work before they were promoted and at that stage are making a career out of it. Hard to imagine it would be below 60k, otherwise your going to have serious problems retaining staff.

As someone else mentioned, I think it would be heavily performance bonus based and rightly so.

 

[sabre_ac]

If I had my time over as a student supermarket worker I would transfer to the distribution centre. Good money to be made there if you have a small amount of common sense, reasonable fitness and want to work fast.

We seem to have walked the same path.

While the student supermarket gig was pretty good considering you worked with mainly people your own age and could perform it hung over, I think if I had my time again I would have worked at Bunnings. Learn something practical, similar social circle and no handling of food.

 

[cleveland]

That sounds too high for a Fruit & Veg Manager. According to this Fruit & Veg mgr tops out around $60k, must be a HUGE store to get that kind of coin.
www.thefuturerich.com.au/career/the-ultimate-pay-scale-guide-for-supermarket-and-big-box-retailer-jobs-in-australia

Guides like that are just a guide obviously. Doesnt take into account ive got 18 years experience in the industry

 

[Scotland]

We seem to have walked the same path.

While the student supermarket gig was pretty good considering you worked with mainly people your own age and could perform it hung over, I think if I had my time again I would have worked at Bunnings. Learn something practical, similar social circle and no handling of food.

Not sure how much you'd learn at Bunnings, most of the staff I deal with there don't seem any more knowledgable than anyone else.

If I had my time over I'd probably work in a pub for a bit. s**t hours but worth it for the experience.

 

[BIRDBRAIN]

Run a small liquor department, 60K + up to 20% bonus, in charge of 3 staff. It's s**t money imo, you can probably make more sitting on a forklift and have no responsibilties.

 

[Scotland]

Run a small liquor department, 60K + up to 20% bonus, in charge of 3 staff. It's s**t money imo, you can probably make more sitting on a forklift and have no responsibilties.

Tell that to teachers, nurses etc.

 

[AtomicBlonde]

Run a small liquor department, 60K + up to 20% bonus, in charge of 3 staff. It's s**t money imo, you can probably make more sitting on a forklift and have no responsibilties.

For retail, that is very good money believe it or not. I was a store manager for a national retailer a long time ago and the money was dreadful, no bonuses or incentives, expected to work any time at the drop of a hat, no holidays or set days off... The list goes on, if you can earn 60k plus per annum in retail then you are on a good wicket (for retail of course).

 

[BIRDBRAIN]

Tell that to teachers, nurses etc.

I have had a lot of 'teaching students' work for me, they are often some of the thickest people I've ever met. 'I don't get it' is the most uttered words from their mouths. Teaching degrees seem to have become a catch-all for not very smart people who just make it into uni and don't know what they want to do. They then spend the next 4-6 years failing and repeating units as long as it takes until they scrape over the line for their teaching degree and become a qualified teacher. Actual stupid people are teachers these days, society is doomed.

 

[BIRDBRAIN]

For retail, that is very good money believe it or not. I was a store manager for a national retailer a long time ago and the money was dreadful, no bonuses or incentives, expected to work any time at the drop of a hat, no holidays or set days off... The list goes on, if you can earn 60k plus per annum in retail then you are on a good wicket (for retail of course).

Considering what I have to do it's not terrible money, but the other department managers ie/ Grocery, Produce are on a lot more, pushing 70K and your bonus is based on a percentage of your salary. I do however believe there are a lot of cushy high-paying jobs out there in manufacturing/industry where people make 120K doing * all. Crane operator on the docks, how do I get into that? It would beat throwing around hundreds of slabs of beer every week. You probably have to know some union/bikies heavyweight.

 

[IQ3]

My best mate is a department manager. On 62k a year. Was long-life manager and used to work like 12-14hrs a day, just couldn't keep up. Now he is a bakery manager and does his set hours and gets to go home. Gets bonuses on top of his 62k as well, as long as his store hits their targets

 

[Scotland]

I knew some supermarket dept managers who worked crazy hours back in the day.

Soooooooo not worth it.