NatWest raises pay for staff in face of inflation

Bloomberg

NatWest Group Plc will give more than 22,000 staff an average pay rise of around £1,000 ($1,199) from September to help them cope with the cost-of-living crisis.
Staff earning less than £32,000 will get a 4% salary rise, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. NatWest said it had discussed the move with Unite and the Financial Services Union, which it said supported the proposal. The bank had more than 40,000 UK-based staff at the end of 2021, according to its annual report.
Fellow British lenders Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Barclays Plc have pledged to pay most of their staff more as the cost of living spirals. Expectations for inflation, output prices and wage increases among UK businesses are all jumping higher, according to a Bank of England survey published on Thursday that may convince policy makers to push for bigger interest-rate hikes in the coming months.
Meanwhile, Barclays also said that it will give a £1,200 ($1,460) pay raise to 35,000 of its UK-based staff, the latest lender to boost wages as the cost-of-living crisis deepens.
Employees in customer-facing, branch and junior support roles will receive the increase to their annual pensionable salary from August 1.
The bank said it will continue “to monitor the economic situation globally and consider our approach to pay in each country in the local context.” Barclays’ annual pay review for all staff will occur in the near future and take effect from March, it added. The lender has about 82,000 staff globally, according to its most recent annual report.
The move comes the same month that Lloyds Banking Group Plc said it will pay staff an additional £1,000 this summer as rising prices add pressure to British household budgets and depress consumer confidence. The Bank of England is predicting price increases will accelerate past 11% later this year.