Sainsbury's rewards staff with 5% pay hike despite budget tax hit
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The UK's second largest supermarket chain is to reward store staff with an inflation-busting pay hike this year, months after warning that customers will be paying higher prices to offset budget tax hikes. Sainsbury's said on Friday, while revealing strong Christmas sales, that the group's hourly-paid workers would get a 5% rise worth more than £1,100 a year on average.
The award would be "split into two separate increases to help manage a particularly tough cost inflation environment", the chain explained, with the rises due to be implemented in March and August. Money latest: Pound hit steadies as chancellor considers spending cuts.
The pay rise would apply to both Sainsbury's and Argos workers "for delivering leading service and productivity", the statement added, claiming that it would mean the company would be "the best paying UK grocer from March". Sainsbury's boss Simon Roberts was among business leaders to publicly speak out in the wake of last October's budget, which put firms on the hook for the bulk of £40bn in tax increases.
He warned then that additional costs would result in higher prices for customers as the chain did not have the "capacity to absorb" a "barrage of costs". Ticket re-sales could be capped under crackdown on touts. Money blog: Millions of Britons on these major networks warned they will lose 3G service.
