London's baristas are set to receive a sweetener in their pay packets from tomorrow after a leading coffee chain announced its staff will receive a salary increase to put them above the new National Living Wage.
Costa Coffee owner Whitbread said it will increase the pay of its 12,500 baristas, including under 25s, to a minimum of £7.40 an hour once they completed initial training.
London workers will earn a minimum to £8.20 an hour.
The company has followed big employers Morrisons and Lidl in hiking wages before the planned National Living Wage is introduced next April at £7.20 an hour.
Costa managing director Chris Rogers said: "We have chosen to pay the same rates to everyone as we strongly believe that if two people are making the same contribution they should receive the same pay and that it should be linked to training and skills levels, not age."
The announcement comes three weeks after Andy Harrison, the boss of parent company Whitbread, warned it will have to hike prices and faces a "substantial" hit as a result of the living wage announcement, made by Chancellor George Osborne in his last Budget.
