Staff at Sainsbury’s and Waitrose are set to benefit after changes in bonus policy and a strong performance respectively left the supermarkets' workforces in strong positions.

Sainsbury’s has brought forward its bonus payments for its 1,200 highest-earning staff to avoid the imminent 50 per cent ‘supertax’, with a further 120,000 staff receiving their bonus eight weeks earlier than normal under a new trial.

The proportion of the annual bonus that is being brought forward relates only to that based on Sainsbury's group objectives, rather than personal objectives, set to be assed in the coming weeks.

At Waitrose, the retailer's strong performance - boasting a 9.7 per cent rise in profits before tax for the year to January 30 on Friday - has led to bonuses of £306.6 million.

This means the 70,000 partners in its parent company, John Lewis, will now share a bonus pot of £151.3m, with payments of 15 per cent of salary.

Sainsbury’s said: "We think it is fairer to the individual for the proportion of their bonus awards that are based on Sainsbury's financial performance to be paid, and therefore taxed, in accordance with the rates that applied across the financial year in which they were earned."

Tesco said it had not yet decided whether it would bring forward any bonus payments in the light of the top rate of tax rising from 40 per cent to 50 per cent for those taking home more than £150,000 from 6 April, according to close sources speaking to the Financial Times.

Topics