MORRISONS is set to become the highest paying UK supermarket for store staff after announcing a new hourly wage deal. 

The Bradford-based chain is set to pay its store and manufacturing staff a minimum of £10.2 an hour, a minimum two per cent increase on their base rate.

This pay deal proposal follows negotiations with the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw).

The new deal is planned to start this October, and means that since 2014 the hourly pay rate for Morrisons store customer assistants has gone from £6.83 per hour to £10.20, an increase of more than 40 per cent.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Bradford-based Morrisons has announced a new pay deal for its staff Bradford-based Morrisons has announced a new pay deal for its staff (Image: PA)

The pay deal announced today is subject to a ballot that is now underway and closes on June 20, with the final results being announced by the end of June.

Morrisons will also pay a London location supplement of £0.85 per hour to all stores within the M25 - rather than just Inner London - taking the minimum rate of pay for store colleagues within the M25 to £11.05².

The company became the first UK supermarket to break the £10 an hour barrier for store customer assistants 18 months ago and today's announcement means a further pay increase for over 80,000 Morrisons colleagues.

Clare Grainger, group people director at Morrisons, said: “Following last year’s 8.7 per cent pay increase for our customer assistants, Morrisons was the first UK supermarket to reach the £10 an hour mark, and we’re very pleased to be maintaining our position as the highest paying UK national supermarket.

“Today’s announcement recognises the important contribution our colleagues make in serving local communities up and down the country.” Joanne McGuinness, Usdaw National Officer, said: “Usdaw has negotiated an established rate of £10.20 per hour for Morrisons workers, which is the highest basic pay rate in the supermarket sector.

“We have also secured an established rate of £11.05 for staff within the M25, the same as the London Living Wage.

“Our members in Morrisons will now be balloted on the company’s offer.”

The new rate of pay is the latest in a range of benefits aimed at rewarding and thanking colleagues for the important work that they do. Other benefits now available to all colleagues include: an unlimited 15 per cent colleague discount - introduced during Covid to show our thanks to frontline staff and maintained to help colleagues with cost of living increases and two 10 per cent family and friends discounts.