Marks & Spencer raises pay in battle for supermarket staff

Marks & Spencer has announced pay rises for staff from April, as supermarkets fight to keep employees.

It will increase minimum pay for workers outside of London to £12 per hour, with staff in the capital seeing a raise to £13.15 per hour.

The increase means all of its workers will be paid the voluntary Real Living Wage, which is higher than the compulsory National Living Wage.

About 40,000 staff across the food and clothing retailer will get a raise.

The company also announced it would be making "substantial improvements" to its maternity, paternity and adoption policies.

M&S's minimum pay for staff outside London is currently £10.90 per hour, while those in London receive £12.05.

With the National Living Wage, often referred to as the minimum wage, set to rise to £11.44 an hour in April 2024 - and for the first time will include 21 and 22-year-olds - the increases mean workers at the retailer will earn 56p more per hour than the government minimum wage.

M&S is joining Aldi, Sainsbury's and Lidl in increasing its minimum pay for staff outside of London to £12 per hour. Aldi's higher pay has been in place since the start of February, while Lidl and Sainsbury's increased wage will benefit workers from March.

Since April last year, Britain's biggest grocer Tesco has been paying workers £11.02 an hour outside London and £11.95 in the capital.

But Tesco and others will need to increase worker wages at least in line with the new minimum wage when it comes into effect this April.

M&S announced on Tuesday that its store managers would also receive a wage increase to £13.05 per hour outside of London and £14.20 in the capital.

The retailer said the increases meant that since March 2022, it had invested more than £146m in its overall retail pay package.

Meanwhile, M&S said that from April 2024 it would be one of the first retailers to introduce six weeks' paternity leave at full pay.

The supermarket added it was "almost doubling" maternity and adoption leave to 26 weeks - also at full pay - which it said equated to a £5m investment annually.

Chief executive Stuart Machin said M&S wanted to be the UK's most trusted retailer and employer.

"But creating a great place to work isn't just about pay; it's about the overall package and colleagues feeling valued and able to be their best," he added.