Marks And Spencer is giving staff a pay boost (Image: Getty)
(M&S) has announced a huge boost for its staff, who are set to receive pay rises next month as part of a £95million investment. The retailer revealed that from 1 April, around 50,000 M&S customer assistants will see their national hourly rate rise from £12 to £16.60.
It means a full-time worker will receive as much as £98 extra a month before tax and deductions, it has been claimed. The M&S customer assistant rate in London is rising from £13.15 to £13.85. The new minimum hourly rates are in line with an increase in the real living wage from April 1. M&S’s national rate for team support managers is also rising from £13.05 to £13.65, while the London rate is going up from £14.20 to £14.90.
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M&S CEO Stuart Machin said: “Following the government’s recent increases in tax and National Insurance contributions, it’s no secret that M&S and indeed the entire retail sector has some significant cost headwinds to face into in the new financial year.
“However, I have always believed we should not allow these headwinds to impact our hourly paid colleagues, which is why today, for the third year in a row, we are making a record investment in our retail pay offer.
“This means we have now invested almost £300m in our pay over the past three years, well above the rate of inflation, in addition to our market-leading discount and pension offer for colleagues.”
This comes as other high street stores face closures. Last week, the British Retail Consortium sounded the alarm over what it says are £5billion in extra costs hitting shops in 2025, with the increase in employer National Insurance contributions forecast to cost 160,000 jobs between now and the end of 2026.
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The BRC said in its latest release on the impact of the ‘ Budget: “Parliamentarians have been raising the impact of last year’s Budget on retailers at debates and through written questions this week.
“With the industry facing £5 billion in new costs from the Budget this year – plus a further £2 billion from the new packaging levy, Extended Producer Responsibility – we’ve been speaking to and briefing MPs and Peers from all parties to explain how the significant cost burden will curtail retail investment, damage the industry’s ability to offer crucial part-time jobs and place inflationary pressure on prices.”
Conservative MP Andrew Griffith said in the House of Commons: “Business is not an abstraction; it is our pubs, our cafés, our restaurants and bars, our clothes shops and our newsagents.
“They are very real, and they are in very real danger. For many of them, the choices the Government have made will be terminal.
“The British Retail Consortium, the British Chambers of Commerce, UKHospitality, the Federation of Small Businesses and Family Business UK are all ringing the alarm bells, but this Government are not listening, and we have heard that across this House, including from the other parties here today.”