It will increase its basic rate from £9.50 to £10 an hour for staff across its supermarkets and Argos stores from 6 March.

Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts said the pay boost reflected the progress it was making against its savings plan.

It follows the likes of Morrisons and Lidl who announced similar moves last year.

Sainsbury’s will also increase its minimum hourly rate from £9.75 to £10.50 for workers in outer London and from £10.10 to £11.05 in inner London.

By comparison, the UK’s minimum wage for workers over 23 – the National Living Wage – is set to rise from its current level of £8.91 an hour to £9.50 from April.

Meanwhile, the real living wage, paid voluntarily by almost 9,000 employers throughout the country, has gone up from £9.50 to £9.90 an hour.