Sainsbury's and M&S bosses paid almost £5million each amid cost of living profits boom

Senior executives at two of the UK's major supermarket chains have seen their pay packets balloon to almost £5m, amid the cost of living crisis that has seen the price of putting food on the table skyrocket for people across the country.

Bosses at Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's have seen large pay increases over this period of high inflation, receiving salaries, bonuses, and shares worth millions while the overall price of food has risen by 25 per cent. At the UK's largest supermarket, Tesco CEO Ken Murphy has seen his overall pay increase to £10m after the grocery giant made £2.3bn in profit before tax, up from £882m the year before.

Since 2022, M&S workers have seen their pay increase by around 26 per cent to £12 per hour as their food and rent or mortgage bills also increased. Meanwhile, co-CEO Stuart Machin saw his pay increase from £2.7m to £4.73m, as profits surged to £716m last year. At Sainsbury's, worker pay has gone up by 17 per cent to the same level, while boss Simon Roberts took home £4.9m amid a similar boom in profit.

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Part of this increase in executive pay at the major supermarkets is their similarly large increases in stock prices, with share payouts part of their annual bonus structuring. In the last year alone, M&S's value on the stock market has increased by a massive 64 per cent.

Despite a four-day working pattern, Retail Gazette reports that M&S' other co-CEO had seen an 85 per cent pay increase, receiving a £4.4m payout in the last year, or, £2650 per hour of work - around 200 times that of a worker on the shop floor.

An M&S spokesperson stated: “M&S delivered a strong performance,