Sainsbury’s staff set for 5% pay hike after ‘biggest ever’ Christmas
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Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s is to raise staff wages by 5% after cheering its “biggest ever” Christmas. The UK’s second-largest grocery chain, behind Tesco, said it saw a strong performance in the key Christmas period amid soaring demand for party food and bottles of fizz.
As a result, it told shareholders on Friday it is on track to increase its profits for the year, in line with previous targets. It came as Sainsbury’s said it will hand staff an inflation-busting 5% pay increase in 2025 to help workers through a “particularly tough cost inflation environment”.
The increase, which will affect 118,000 hourly-paid workers, will see the minimum annual pay for a full-time worker outside London increase from £22,882 to £24,026 by August. Sainsbury’s and Argos workers will see hourly pay increase from £12 to £12.45 in March, before rising again to £12.60 in August.
Workers in London will see pay increase from £13.15 to £13.70 in March, before lifting to £13.85 in August. It comes ahead of the Government’s planned increase in the national minimum wage in April, which will rise by 6.7% to a minimum of £12.21 per hour for workers over 21 years of age.
The new pay deal came as Sainsbury’s reported an increase in sales over the latest quarter. The retail giant said overall group sales, excluding fuel, were up 2.7% for the 16 weeks to January 4, driven by strong momentum in its grocery business. It said grocery sales rose by 4.1% for the period, as it increased its share of the UK grocery market further.
