Marks & Spencer is increasing staff pay for the second time this year and providing 4,500 employees with a £250 shopping voucher as part of a £15m package to help with the rising cost of living. The clothing, homewares and food retailer is also offering free food to workers in its warehouses in addition to that already provided to staff in stores, and both groups will have access to free sanitary products. Workers will also be able to attend financial planning workshops and get meal planning advice as well as continuing to receive a 20% discount on M&S purchases. The company said as part of its first ever autumn pay review, the hourly pay of more than 40,000 staff would rise 2% to a minimum of £10.20 an hour from 1 October – up from £10 an hour introduced in April. The deal will give £100 extra a month to a full-time customer assistant compared with October last year when workers earned a minimum of £9.50 an hour. The latest agreement contributes to a 7.4% annual uplift. Stuart Machin, the chief executive of M&S, said: “Whether you’re running a home or running a business, everyone across the country is feeling the pressure of rising costs. We want to do what we can to help ease some of that strain.” The payout is the latest effort by businesses to help workers deal with soaring inflation on household bills and essentials from travel to food. John Lewis is to offer free food to all its workers, including temporary staff, during its peak Christmas trading period as well as a one-off cost of living support payment of £500 for full-time workers, pro rata for part-time ones. In July, Aldi said it was putting up hourly pay for the second time in a year with an increase of 40p to a minimum of £10.50 outside the M25 and to £11.95 in London, an increase of at least 3.5%. Tesco and the sandwich chain Pret a Manger have increased pay twice for workers in the past year, while Asda raised its pay to £10.10 an hour in July after unions criticised it for lagging behind rival chains, with a rate of £9.66 introduced in April.