Rami Levi the owner and CEO of the Hashikma discount supermarket chain has announced that he will forgo his quarterly bonus and have the amount distributed among the 780 lowest paid workers in the company. This will mean an extra NIS 1280 in their salary slip.
Levi when questioned whether it would not be preferable to extend a permanent salary raise rather than a one off gesture replied that he was trying to make his way in a competitive market but that he had no objection to the government raising the minimum wage level by 50%. In other words Levi is quite okay with higher salaries as long as we are dealing with a level playing field.
Levi considers his act as a show of corporate responsibility at a time of protests against growing socioeconomic gaps and high price levels. It should be pointed out that Levi has extended his supermarket chain to Maaleh Edumim, Gush Etzion and Shaar Binyamin – all in Judea and Samaria. The stores are patronized by both the Jewish and Arab populations.