Marks & Spencer is preparing a pay hike for thousands of staff across its store network, the retailer said on Wednesday.
The rate of pay for approximately 50,000 in-store customer assistants will increase from £12 an hour to £12.60 per hour from 1 April, representing a 5 per cent increase.
For customer assistants working in London, the hourly rate will increase from £13.15 to £13.85, representing a 5.3 per cent increase on last year.
For team support managers, the hourly rate will increase from £13.05 to £13.65, while for those in London, it will rise from £14.20 to £14.90.
The retailer said it was making a £95million ‘investment in its retail pay offer’ this year.
It said all of its store staff would ‘continue to be paid the Real Living Wage as their base pay, with M&S’s wide range of benefits – such as its industry leading 20 per cent colleague discount, which when combined could be worth up to £15.40 per hour’.
Boost: Marks & Spencer has announced pay boosts for thousands of staff across its shops
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her first Budget in October that the national living wage will rise to £12.21 per hour from next month.
M&S chief executive, Stuart Machin, said: ‘Following the Government’s recent increases in tax and national insurance contributions, it’s no secret that M&S and indeed the entire retail sector has some significant cost headwinds to face into in the new financial year.
‘However, I have always believed that we should not allow these headwinds to impact our hourly paid colleagues, which is why today, for the third year in a row, we are making a record investment in our retail pay offer.
‘This means we have now invested almost £300million in our pay over the past three years, well above the rate of inflation, in addition to our market leading discount and pension offer for colleagues.’
In November, M&S said it faced £120million of extra costs this year as a result of the Budget on 30 October.
An increase to employer national insurance contributions will spark a £60million headwind to M&S this year, while the 6.7 per cent rise in minimum pay will add another £60million.
The company said it would do ‘everything we can’ to prevent price increases for shoppers, but admitted the company was facing ‘pretty significant costs to mitigate against’.
New data published by NIQ today showed M&S was among one of the winners last month as shoppers spent £962million on Valentine’s Day.
NIQ reported that M&S’ Dine-in for two for £25 helped drive sales up 10.8 per cent this Valentine’s Day as almost one in four shoppers visited the retailer’s food halls in the last four weeks.
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