Morrisons 'to pay staff above minimum wage'

Supermarket Morrisons pledged to pay its staff above the national living wage due to be introduced by the Government next year.

The country's fourth biggest supermarket said from March it will increase hourly staff pay to £8.20 from a previous minimum of £6.83.

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

This tops the announcement by Chancellor George Osborne in July to raise the country's hourly minimum wage from April next year to £7.20 pounds for over 25s, from its current level of £6.50, and to at least £9 an hour by 2020.

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

"No colleague will be worse off," a Morrisons spokeswoman added.

Morrisons 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."

Mr Potts 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, and a number of retailers have recently responded to the Chancellor's move.

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% of its 17,000-strong UK workforce at a cost of £9 million.

Sainsbury's increased wages by 4% for its 137,000 staff from the end of August, setting a new hourly rate of £7.36 an hour.

Tesco, which pays shop workers £7.39 an hour, said that its routine annual discussions about pay and benefits are taking place.

However fashion and homewear retailer Next warned earlier this month it may have to hike prices to pay its staff the living wage.

It estimated the cost of implementing the living wage to be £2 million for next year, but said it could rise to £27 million a year as the requirement grows.