Big Four giant Sainsbury’s has increased pay for its basic rate workers, paying £10 an hour in London and £9.90 outside the capital.
That’s slightly over the Real Living Wage, a rate set by The Living Wage Foundation, which uses inflation and the cost of living to calculate the minimum workers should earn each year.
It’s completely separate to the government’s minimum wage.
The move follows Marks & Spencer in February and a decision on Thursday by Tesco, the UK’s largest private employer, to increase its hourly rate by 5.8% to £10.10.
It also comes a day after Sainsbury's announced 300 job cuts in its head office operations.
Sainsbury’s will join the likes of Aviva and KPMG in opting to join the Real Living Wage, it said today.
The Living Wage Foundation, which sets the pay, said last November that it would increase the hourly rate as consumers grapple with a surge in rising costs - especially for fuel and household energy.
Tesco said on Thursday it would increase its hourly rate by 5.8% to £10.10.
Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said: “We know times are tough for everyone. That’s why we were one of the first in the industry to pay over the Real Living Wage at £10 per hour and brought forward the announcement of our annual pay review to early January, as we wanted to help colleagues plan and manage the cost of living in the year ahead.”
The Real Living Wage is higher than the statutory National Living Wage of £8.91 an hour for workers aged 23 and over. It rose to £9.50 on April 1, 2022.
The Foundation said 9,000 employers have now opted to pay the voluntary sum and new signatories included construction firms Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon Homes.
Meanwhile BT, Britain's biggest broadband and mobile operator, is facing strike action after its largest union rejected a pay rise of £1,500 pounds for its frontline workers.
The company handed 58,000 staff a pay rise that it said was its biggest award in two decades, but the offer was rebuffed by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees.
Now, the union has said it will immediately ballot its members over strike action.
Last week, BT offered its frontline staff a £1,200 pay rise, which the CWU branded “insulting.” It is pushing for a 10% increase in pay for workers, in order to head off surging inflation.
