Sainsbury’s invests 200 million pounds to increase employee pay

Sainsbury’s has said that it would be investing 200 million pounds in order to increase the rate of employee pay by 9.1 percent, effective from March.

The supermarket giant will be increasing the wage to 12 pounds an hour, and 13.15 pounds for colleagues in London, making it the company’s “biggest ever investment into colleague pay” with 120,000 hourly paid colleagues set to benefit.

In a release, Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “Our colleagues 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.”

The move follows a string of similar wage increases over the course of the past few years at Sainsbury’s, which said it has upped pay by 50 percent since 2018 and by 9 percent in the last year, in line with the Real Living Wage. It brings the company’s total investment in colleague pay to over 500 million pounds.

Speaking on the most recent raise, Bally Auluk, USDAW national officer, said: "The continuing strong working relationship between USDAW & Sainsbury's has resulted in an inflation busting pay award of over 9 percent despite inflation falling and following on from the significant pay increases over the previous couple of years.

“The current cost of living is still on the rise which is why USDAW are very pleased the business has taken this on board during our consultations and responded in such a positive manner, which includes continuing to offer free food and additional discount."