John Lewis Partnership upping minimum rate of pay to £11.55 an hour

The John Lewis Partnership (JLP) is increasing its minimum rates of staff pay by 10 per cent from the beginning of April.

The group, which owns John Lewis department stores and the Waitrose supermarket chain, said minimum hourly rates would rise to £11.55 across the UK, which is above the Government’s national living wage, which will increase by 9.8 per cent to £11.44  an hour.

The partnership’s rate for London staff will rise to £12.89 pounds. JLP said the pay hikes would cost the group £116million. 

It said the budget for pay hikes was the ‘highest ever increase for JLP.’

There have been reports that JLP plans to slash as many as 11,000 jobs over the next few years. It is looking at cutting its 76,000 strong workforce by at least 10 per cent.