The boss of a PR firm has given all his staff a £1,000 pay rise to help with the cost of living crisis.
Stone Junction, based in Stafford, has raised the salary of everyone in the company following a huge increase in energy, fuel and weekly shopping bills.
Energy bills were the biggest hit on household bills last month, after the regulator Ofgem hiked its price cap for those with typical use by £693 on April.
Families are also facing increased council tax bills, water bills, broadband and mobile costs, and record petrol and diesel prices.
On top of rising bills, workers and employers are paying more in National Insurance following a 1.25 percentage point increase.
Richard Stone, managing director of Stone Junction, told Stoke-on-Trent Live : “We have brought forward some of our planned increases to coincide with a time when life will become much more expensive for our team.“
He continued: “We will push ahead with the others and expect to conclude the project by June next year. The leadership team and I are really happy to do this.
“We don’t think it makes us saints, and we don’t think it’s the right move for every business. However, it would have been nice to say we’ve done this in a better economic environment.
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“The UK has suffered from a decade of austerity, global economic uncertainty and political upheaval, leaving real wage growth stagnant.
“In February, The Food Foundation reported that a million people said they, or someone in their household, went for an entire day without eating because they could not afford or access food.
“Raising the salaries of some middle-class PR people probably won’t make any difference to that statistic. But we want to influence the things we can.
“We are, like most people, 100 per cent behind raising national insurance to fund the NHS. Many of us would happily pay more.
“But the rationale behind the increase in public transport, energy and food costs feels like a fiction, when the balance sheets of the businesses in question are included as part of the equation.”
The rises came into effect last month.
Last month, another boss of an engineering firm gave each of his workers an extra £1,000 to help with the rising cost of living.
Matt Fletcher, managing director of Fletcher Moorland, gave the extra cash to 86 employees.
We've also reported on how another boss gave each of his workers £750 to put toward their bills.
James Hipkins, 51, managing director of Emerys Timber and Builders Merchants, splashed out £45,000 in total on 60 members of staff.
