B&Q and Screwfix employees are to receive a pay rise in April, as their parent company seeks to attract and retain staff in a competitive labour market.
From 1 April, B&Q will award a pay rise of 6.5%, taking store minimum to £9.80 an hour, while Screwfix staff will see their pay increase by 5.4%, taking store minimum to £9.70 an hour.
By comparison, the consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation in January was 5.5% – slightly ahead of the increase Screwfix employees are set to be awarded.
According to XpertHR, the average pay award in the three months to the end of February 2022 was 3% – unchanged on the previous rolling quarter.
Recent figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that, adjusted for inflation, regular pay in in November to January fell by 1% compared to the previous year, while real total pay grew by 0.1%.
New national minimum wage rates take effect on 1 April 2022.
B&Q and Screwfix parent company Kingfisher, which has 82,000 employees spanning eight countries, said all staff will be able to join a share plan later this year, which it claimed would allow employees at all levels to benefit from the company’s growth.
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Seventy-five per cent of staff who took advantage of the 2020/21 share plan, which was only available to some staff, were store-based.
In its annual results statement for the year ended 31 January 2022, Kingfisher said: “We invested to strengthen our employer brands, to ensure we can attract and retain colleagues in increasingly competitive labour markets, especially at store level.
“To recognise the contribution of our frontline teams, we invested in store colleague remuneration, including through awarding additional pay increases or bonuses.”
Kingfisher said it had set stretching diversity targets, which formed part of senior managers’ incentive plans.
“We are on track to meet our goal of 40% women in all management roles by 2025 (currently at 38%), from a base of 35% in 2020,” it said.
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“In 2021 we made several diverse appointments into senior leadership roles, although we have more to do.”
It also took on more 3,800 apprentices across the Kingfisher group last year, while staff at all levels participated in more than 2.2m hours of learning.
