Sainsbury's, one of Britain's biggest private sector employers, said that from March it would pay staff outside of London 12 pounds an hour and staff in London 13.15 pounds an hour, up from 11 pounds and 11.95 pounds currently.

Britain's minimum wage, called the National Living Wage, will increase by 9.8% to 11.44 pounds an hour from April 2024, making it one of the highest as a share of average earnings of any advanced economy.

($1 = 0.7879 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by William James)