Last checked at 
(Sharecast News) - Marks & Spencer announced on Wednesday that it is making its biggest-ever investment in pay for retail staff to lift minimum wages to at least the Real Living Wage.
The high street stalwart said in a statement that it is pumping £95m into UK retail pay to raise wages for customer assistants to "at least £12.60 an hour", from the current minimum of £12 an hour.
For team support managers, the hourly rate will rise to £13.65 from £13.05.
Meanwhile, customer assistants working at the company's London stores will see their hourly rate will rise to £13.85 from £13.15, while London-based team support managers will see an increase to £14.90 from £14.20.
The new rates will affect the roughly 50,000 customer assistants in the UK from 1 April.
M&S has raised its standard hourly rate by over 26% since 2022, having invested around £285m.
The retailer said it comes "despite new cost pressures from the government", with higher employer contributions to National Insurance set to kick in next month.
"Following the Government's recent increases in tax and national insurance contributions, it's no secret that M&S and indeed the entire retail sector has some significant cost headwinds to face into in the new financial year," said chief executive Stuart Machin.
"However, I have always believed that we should not allow these headwinds to impact our hourly paid colleagues, which is why today, for the third year in a row, we are making a record investment in our retail pay offer."
