Marks and Spencer (M&S) has said it will invest £57 million in increasing pay for employees.

From 1 April, hourly pay will rise from £10.20 to £10.90 while employees working in London will see an increase to £12.05 from £11.25.

M&S claims that this pay increase is in line with or more than the real living wage and means that employees have seen a pay increase of 20 per cent over the past two years.

The pay rise will apply to around 40,000 employees and follows an investment of £46.5 million to raise wages last year.

Commenting on the news Stuart Machin, chief executive at M&S, said: “Whether you’re running a home or a business, everyone is trying to balance the reality of rising costs. Of course, we all hope inflation subsides, and there are some positive signs that it is doing so, but we need to help colleagues in the here and now.”

The move comes as other British supermarkets announce pay rises for their employees. Tesco will increase hourly pay for staff working in stores by 72p, which is the third pay increase in the past 10 months.

Aldi stated that from September 2022 employees will be paid a minimum of £10.50 an hour nationally and £11.95 for those working within the M25; an increase of 40p an hour. Employees in Aldi’s warehouses saw pay increase to a minimum rate of £13.48 per hour, a rise from £11.48 in January 2022.

Earlier this year Sainsbury’s increased the pay of its employees from £10.25 to £11.00 per hour outside London and from £11.30 to £11.05 per hour in the capital.

Asda was named the “worst paying” supermarket out of the big four by the GMB Union, with basic pay of around £10.10 per hour.

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