Costa Coffee has unveiled plans to hike salaries for more than 16,000 UK workers as it became the latest firm to increase pay ahead of the minimum wage increase. The coffee chain, which is owned by the Coca-Cola Company, said it will raise the base rate of pay for workers across its 1,520 company-owned stores in the UK from £10 an hour to £10.70 an hour from April 1.
More experienced baristas will see their base pay rise from £10.53 to at least £11.23 an hour, depending on location and role. The rises will see pay increase by between 6.1% and 7.3%, excluding bonuses – working out at 6.7% on average.
It follows an announcement by rival Pret A Manger last week that it would increase the base salaries of its workers from the start of next month by 2.9%, from £10.30 an hour to £10.60 an hour. The moves come ahead of a 9.7% increase in the national living wage – the law stating the minimum amount that companies are allowed to pay people over 23 – to £10.42 an hour on April 1.
