Starbucks will pay all staff the National Living Wage

The firm today announced it was to increase its basic pay to £7.20 an hour next April for all employees, including apprentices.

It will also pay a premium, as yet undisclosed, to those working in the capital.

Starbucks will pay all staff the new National Living Wage, alongside offering interest-free loans to cover rental deposits.

Kris Engskov, Starbucks” president of Europe, the Middle East and Asia, said: “We are really proud to be the first private company to implement Shelter’s innovative tenancy deposit loan scheme.

Thousands of Starbucks employees will benefit from a 6% pay rise under the new Living Wage – even if they’re under 25.

“We know the cost of living is a key concern for many, with the average rental deposit in England now at £1,226”.

She urged Starbucks to commit to its definition of a living wage – £7.85 an hour and £9.15 in London.

“And with over half of our partners being under 25 years old, that rent affordability is an issue that affects them”.

Its decision to extend the minimum wage to all of its workers silences critics who argued that companies who employ large numbers of low paid workers will merely employ more under-25s to avoid paying the higher rate. The loan will be capped at a month’s wages and will be repaid over a 12-month period.

The coffee shop chain, which has 770 stores in the United Kingdom, is also introducing a programme it’s labelled “Home Sweet Loan” (a pun so bad it’s nearly good).

Starbucks, which now has a market capitalisation of $86.6bn (£56.9bn), has undertaken a number of social impact schemes through its United States outlets.

Starbucks runs a number of social schemes to help its own workforce in the U.S., spending “more on healthcare for our partners [staff] than we do on coffee beans”, Mr Schultz said in June.

He added that Starbucks’ initiative would hopefully encourage other United Kingdom employers to follow suit and give renters “the helping hand they need”.