Sainsbury’s raises staff pay again as part of £25m support package

theguardian.com:

Sainsbury’s is giving its lowest-paid shop workers a second pay rise in a year as well as extra discounts and free food during their shifts in a £25m package to help them cope with rising living costs this winter.

Next month the retailer’s 127,000 hourly paid workers will get a 25p an hour increase to £10.25, with the rate for staff in London stores increasing from £11.05 to £11.30.

The unprecedented autumn pay rise will add £20m to the company’s wage bill and combined with the 5% pay increase in spring will cost a total of £150m.

The investment in pay, as well as the hundreds of millions of pounds being poured into limiting food price rises in its stores, will weigh on profits this year.

“Every day I am hearing from colleagues who are really feeling the pressures of the rising cost of living,” said Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s.

“That’s why we are doing everything we can to help our colleagues as they face rising bills and living costs this autumn. This is the first time we have given two pay rises in the same year.”

The so-called cost of living support package includes £5m to provide food such as toast, soup and porridge in staffrooms as well as deeper discounts on shopping. Workers are entitled to 10% off groceries, and in the supermarket’s sister chain Argos all year round, but they will be given more opportunities to save 15% and 20% in the run-up to Christmas.

With some economists concerned that Britain could get trapped in a 1970s-style “wage-price spiral” – Aldi has also pushed through two pay rises this year amid intense competition for staff – Roberts said it would take action whenever it needed to.

“We had a debate over whether we should leave this until next year or bring forward some of this now,