Sainsbury’s is to increase the wages of staff across its supermarkets by an inflation-busting 5%, after reporting its “biggest ever Christmas”.
The UK’s second-largest grocer will raise pay for its hourly-paid colleagues by 5% over the next year, meaning staff will continue to receive the real living wage, which is higher than the national minimum wage.
Simon Roberts, the chief executive of J Sainsbury plc, said: “Our people are fundamental to achieving our next level Sainsbury’s plan and we are pleased to announce that we will raise pay for our hourly-paid colleagues by 5% in the year ahead, split into two separate increases to help manage a particularly tough cost inflation environment.
"We believe in rewarding our colleagues well for delivering leading service and productivity and we will be the best-paying UK grocer from March."
The increases will come in March, and in August. It means pay for hourly-paid staff at Sainsbury’s and Argos will increase to £12.45 an hour in March and then £12.60 an hour by August, matching the real living wage.
Pay for those in London will rise to £13.70 an hour in March, and again to £13.85 in August.
Pay rises are welcome news for UK workers who have struggled through a long cost of living squeeze. But they cause anxiety at the Bank of England, which fears that rising wages could fuel inflation, above its 2% target.
Yesterday the bakery chain Greggs said two-thirds of its workers were given a 6.1% pay rise this month.
The pound is a little weaker this morning, but higher than the lows touched during Thursday’s choppy trading.
Sterling has dipped by a third of a cent to $1.227 in early trading, towards the 14-month trough touched yesterday.
All eyes are on the UK government bond market today, where the current bond market sell-off has been particularly acute.
In early trading, bond yields are nudging slightly higher, although it is a small move.
The yield (or interest rate) on 10-year UK gilts is up two basis points, or 0.02 percentage points, at 4.82%.
Long-dated 30-year UK bond yields are almost 2bp higher, at 5.38%.
It is a big day for global investors, as December’s US payrolls report is released – showing how many new jobs were created last month.
A strong jobs report might drive up the US dollar, and weaken US debt, with a potential knock-on impact on other government debt, too.
The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has travelled to China in an attempt to build closer economic ties with Beijing, despite calls from opposition parties to stay at home and tackle the turmoil in the markets.
The agenda
• 1.30pm GMT: US non-farm payroll jobs report for December
• 3pm GMT: University of Michigan’s US consumer sentiment index for January
We'll be tracking all the main events throughout the day … |
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