B&Q has announced that it will be increasing its minimum hourly rate to £12.21 per hour, and its London rate to up to £13.55 per hour.
From April 2024, 16,500 employees at the home improvement retailer will get an extra 90p per hour, worth over £1,700 more a year for a full-time employee.
B&Q’s minimum hourly rate of pay will be 77p per hour above the government’s national living wage of £11.44 per hour, and 21p per hour above the Real Living Wage of £12.00 per hour.
B&Q, which has over 300 stores throughout the UK and Ireland, states that as a multigenerational employer it believes everyone deserves the same pay for the work they do regardless of age.
Therefore, it will pay the same minimum hourly rate to all employees aged 18 years old and over. This includes apprentices, who receive the same pay as other employees doing the same role.
Graham Bell, CEO of B&Q said: “We want to strengthen the competitiveness of our pay position in the market so that we continue to attract and retain the [employees] we need to serve our customers and help them improve their homes.
“From April, we’ll be increasing pay for our customer advisors by 8% to £12.21 per hour, which for full-time [employees] is worth over £1,700 more a year. This increase means our minimum hourly rate has increased by over 27% in the last 3 years and is currently the highest of any major UK retailer.
“We highly value our front-line [employees] and hope this new hourly rate demonstrates that. Rewarding our [employees] fairly is an important factor in helping us to deliver growth for the business as well as continuing improvement of our customers’ shopping experience, both in store and online.”
B&Q employees also receive benefits that include a 20% B&Q discount, which rises to 30% for energy efficient products, a pension scheme with up to 14% employer contributions, and access to shopping discounts with a number of other retailers and entertainment brands.