One in 20 big businesses in the UK have offered their staff a one-off bonus to help them cope with more expensive bills.
A regular survey by the Office for National Statistics found that around 5% of businesses with 250 or more employees have offered a cost-of-living payment to their employees in the last three months. This compares with 1% of businesses with fewer than 250 employees.
Housebuilders Barratt and Taylor Wimpey, as well as Rolls-Royce, Lloyds and HSBC, are among the big companies that have offered workers a lump sum as food and energy costs continue to climb, Sky News reports.
This is despite many firms dealing with their own rising costs. Among the businesses surveyed, 27% said their main concern is input price inflation, and 20% cited the cost of energy.
Supply chain issues have also impacted sectors ranging from food production to car manufacturing.
Of businesses with 10 or more employees, 20% reported experiencing global supply chain disruption in June 2022, with highest proportion in the manufacturing industry at 35%.
And as many as 58% of trading businesses with 10 or more employees experienced an increase in challenges while importing compared with the previous month. Changes in transportation costs was the most commonly reported challenge for importing and exporting businesses with 10 or more employees, at 43% and 37%, respectively.
