High street favourite Marks and Spencer has announced that it will be increasing its hourly wage for shop staff after a massive investment.
More than 40,000 staff members at stores and Food Halls will benefit from the increase in wages thanks to the retailer recently investing £60 million in employees' pay.
Customer assistant staff will see their hourly pay increase to £10.90 from £10.20 from April 1, M&S revealed, which will bring the figure above the National Living Wage. Staff in London will soon be paid £12.05 an hour, rather than £11.25.
Manchester Evening News reports that the move will cost the upmarket retailer £57 million and mark its biggest ever investment into its front-line workers’ rewards. It will see about 62% of its 65,000 employees benefit from the salary boost.
Staff got two pay rises over the past year, and this additional rise will see a full-time customer assistant earn nearly £150 more per month compared to the same time last year.
It also means that the hourly rate of pay has increased by more than 20% in just over two years, which the group stressed beats inflation, with the UK’s consumer prices index (CPI) reaching a peak of 11.1% late last year.
Stuart Machin, chief executive at M&S, said: "Whether you’re running a home or a business, everyone is trying to balance the reality of rising costs. Of course, we all hope inflation subsides, and there are some positive signs that it is doing so, but we need to help colleagues in the here-and-now.
"That’s why we are investing so significantly in our hourly rates of pay and why we are supporting colleagues with a continued commitment to our wide-ranging package of industry leading benefits."
This news comes after Tesco recently announced a pay rise for staff, with the hourly wage of a store worker going up from £10.30 to £11.02 from April 2 according to PA.
Tesco will also increase its "additional skills payment" for shift leaders to £2.26, taking their hourly wage to £13.28. Asda has also confirmed it will increase staff pay by 10% for 115,000 workers in spring.
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