Morrisons to reward stuff with pay increase

From next March the Bradford-based supermarket will increase hourly staff pay to £8.20 from a previous minimum of £6.83.

It said the move will benefit 90,000 staff across all age brackets and will cost the firm more than £40m. In total the group employs 117,000 workers.

The pay deal is considerably higher than the new planned hourly minimum wage of £7.20 for over 25s, from the current level of £6.50, which is due to be introduced next April.

Morrisons said its new pay formula will see the end of extra pay for working on Sundays, but will raise base pay.

The firm said no colleagues will be worse off.

Morrisons’ new chief executive David Potts said: “We have been listening to our colleagues who told us they want their pay to be more competitive and simpler.”

He added that many staff would move to “a significantly higher hourly rate”.

Workers in retail and the hospitality sector are expected to benefit most from a lift in the minimum levels of pay. Earlier this month discount supermarket Lidl said it will pay a minimum of £8.20 an hour across England, Scotland and Wales and £9.35 per hour in London from October 1, benefiting 53 per cent of its 17,000-strong UK workforce at a cost of £9m.

Sainsbury’s increased wages by four per cent for its 137,000 staff from the end of August, setting a new hourly rate of £7.36 an hour.