Costa Coffee has unveiled plans to hike salaries for more than 16,000 UK workers as it became the latest firm to increase pay ahead of the minimum wage increase.
The coffee chain, which is owned by the Coca-Cola Company, said it will raise the base rate of pay for workers across its 1,520 company-owned stores in the UK from 10 an hour to 10.70 an hour from April 1.
More experienced baristas will see their base pay rise from 10.53 to at least 11.23 an hour, depending on location and role.
The rises will see pay increase by between 6.1% and 7.3%, excluding bonuses - working out at 6.7% on average.
It follows an announcement by rival Pret A Manger last week that it would increase the base salaries of its workers from the start of next month by 2.9%, from 10.30 an hour to 10.60 an hour.
The moves come ahead of a 9.7% increase in the national living wage - the law stating the minimum amount that companies are allowed to pay people over 23 - to 10.42 an hour on April
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Costa said it has increased salaries in April and October last year, which has seen its base rate increase by more than 14% from 9.36 to 10.70 an hour.
UK inflation stands at 10.1%, down only slightly from a peak of 11.1% last October, following surging energy and food bills, with the cost of living having soared across the board over the past year.
Nick Orrin, Costa's interim UK and Ireland managing director, said: "We continue to live in uncertain times, but we are passionate about putting our teams and...
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