LONDON - More than 20,000 Tesco TSCO.L employees will share a windfall profit of more than 30 million pounds ($38 million) from maturing stock schemes, Britain's biggest supermarket group said on Wednesday.

The retailer said the employees, who mostly work in stores and distribution centres, have benefited from strong growth in Tesco's share price, which has risen by 23% over the past year.

Economic think tanks have historically described Britain as a laggard in the area of minimum employee benefits. But a tight labour market after Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted companies to raise their game.

Tesco, which is also Britain's largest private sector employer, increased store workers' pay by 9.1% in March.

The company said on Wednesday that workers who joined its share savings schemes are able to buy shares at a discounted price of 1.88 pounds or 1.98 pounds each and either keep them for the longer term or sell them.

Workers who invested the maximum 500 pounds a month stand to make a profit of almost 10,000 pounds from the three-year scheme and nearly 20,000 pounds from the five-year scheme if they opt to sell the shares.

A Tesco worker who invested the average 68 pounds a month for the past five years stands to make about 6,640 pounds from their 4,080 pound investment for a profit of 2,560 pounds.

Tesco shares were trading at 306 pence on Wednesday.

The company said that about 52,000 of its 300,000 UK workers take part in save-as-you-earn schemes.

In April Tesco reported a 11% jump in full-year profit and last month it said its market share was growing more than at any other time in the past two years as it reiterated its outlook for profit growth this year.

Chief Executive Ken Murphy's pay package for the company's 2023/24 financial year amounted to nearly 10 million pounds.

($1 = 0.7880 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey Editing by David Goodman)