Supermarket Sainsbury’s is to increase pay by 9.1% to £12 per hour as part of a £200 million investment to recognise the hard work of its employees.
From March 2024, 120,000 hourly paid staff will benefit from the rise, with those based in London seeing an increase to £13.15 per hour. For a full-time worker, this amounts to an extra £1,910 a year nationally and £2,290 a year in London, and is above the government’s £11.44 national living wage for 2024.
Sainsbury’s has increased pay by 50% since 2018 and by 9% in the last year in line with the real living wage. Hourly paid staff are currently paid £11 nationally and £11.95 in London.
The latest increase brings its three-year total investment in employee pay to more than £500 million.
Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “Our staff do a brilliant job delivering for our customers every day and at the same time they are continuing to face the rising costs of living. So, in addition to investing to keep our prices low for customers, I’m delighted to confirm an industry leading pay increase again this year for all our hourly paid colleagues. Sainsbury’s believes that engaged colleagues deliver the best service.
“We continue to lead our industry in the level of reward and benefits we provide for our people and this remains a clear priority for us at Sainsbury’s. We believe well rewarded, engaged colleagues deliver the best service and attracting and retaining the best talent will be crucial to our success in delivering the next phase of our business strategy.”
The supermarket provides free food during shifts and increased its employee discount to 15% every Friday and Saturday and to 15% at Argos every payday. For Christmas in 2023, all employees received a voucher to earn four times the usual amount of Nectar points on their big Christmas shop, as well as a 20% discount during Christmas week.