Investors call for Sainsbury’s to pay workers ‘real living wage’
Major investors have launched a campaign calling for Sainsbury’s to help tackle the cost of living crisis by becoming the first supermarket group to pay all its workers the “real living wage” of £9.90 an hour.
Legal & General Investment Management, Nest (National Employment Savings Trust), which is Britain’s largest workplace pension scheme, and several MPs have formed a coalition to push for the change after reports that increasing numbers of supermarket workers are having to turn to food banks to feed themselves and their families.
The group of investors – whose institutional members manage £2.2tn of assets – will file a shareholder resolution on Monday calling for Sainsbury’s to accredit as a living wage employer. The resolution will be put to the vote at the Sainsbury’s annual general meeting, planned for 7 July. The group said it would be writing to all UK supermarkets urging them to take the same action.
Set by the Living Wage Foundation, the nationwide real living wage is currently £9.90, while in London it is £11.05. This is set to rise in November and compares with the statutory minimum wage of £8.91, which rises to £9.50 on 1 April. About 9,000 or more employers have adopted the voluntary pay measure, including half of the FTSE 100 and some prominent retailers such as Ikea and Lush, but no UK supermarket has yet signed up.
Despite official recognition of their status as key workers during the pandemic, supermarket staff continue to be one of the largest groups of low-paid workers in Britain, according to the investor campaign group ShareAction, which is coordinating the resolution.
Sainsbury’s is the UK’s second largest food retailer. It operates more than 600 supermarkets and 800 convenience stores, and in January
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