Marks & Spencer introduces £13.41 rule in stores from April | UK | News
Marks & Spencer is introducing a new £13.41 rule in its stores from April in a major boost to its staff.
The retailer is investing more than £70 million to increase pay for its UK staff by at least 6.4% from April 1; This is an increase of more than double the current inflation rate. Retail pay for customer assistants at M&S UK will rise to £13.41 per hour, with around 55,000 workers benefiting. The pay rise means an increase of £132 per month or £1,587 per year for M&S staff compared to last year.
Meanwhile, pay for London-based customer assistants will rise by 6.4% from April to £14.74 per hour.
Marks & Spencer said it had invested more than £350 million in employee pay in the last four years since it began “reshaping for growth”, equivalent to an increase of over 34% for staff.
This includes unlimited market-leading 20% off all M&S branded food and fashion, home and beauty products, as well as the Sharesave scheme and pension contributions of up to 12% to help employees save for the future.
Together, Marks & Spencer’s newly increased basic pay and benefits package could be worth up to £16.33 per hour.
M&S Chief Executive Stuart Machin said: “Our store colleagues are at the heart of our business, greeting and serving our customers every day and it is important that we invest in them and their wages.
“This is a good cost and I’m pleased we can deliver this inflation-beating salary award alongside our leading benefits package.
“This investment reflects the central role our people play as we reshape M&S for growth. As always, I thank our colleagues for their continued work and commitment.”
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M&S aims to double the size of its food business and modernize its store space as part of “plans to reshape for growth”.
This includes plans to grow its food business by expanding the size of its Food stores to stock a wider range of products and attract more customers for their weekly shopping.
M&S is currently looking at 500 potential locations to move its food stores to new areas, with more than half of the stores across the site, including convenience stores, expected to be in a refurbishment format by April 2028.
