Church of England Pensions Board to vote in support of fair reward for low-paid workers at Next PLC

The Church of England Pensions Board will vote in favour of a resolution at Next PLC’s AGM on May 2025 requesting that the company disclose its approach to setting base pay and conduct a cost/benefit analysis of uplifting pay for all its UK workers to the real Living Wage.  

“Growing income inequality presents a systemic risk to our portfolio and the communities our members are living in and will retire into," said Clare Richards – Director, Social, Responsible Investment at the Church of England Pensions Board. “Greater disclosure by Next of its pay practices would demonstrate how the company seeks to balance the needs of their stakeholders and lowest paid workers. It would provide a basis to assess the likely costs of a more proactive approach to attracting and retaining workers, and whether the negative impacts of low pay are sufficiently factored into existing wage calculations.” 

The resolution has been submitted by a group of investors including Axa Investment Managers and Scottish Widows, together with NGO ShareAction. 

The Pensions Board, which has a long-standing policy to vote in favour of Living Wage accreditation at FTSE companies, has participated in engagement meetings with Next PLC on Living Wage accreditation as part of ShareAction’s Good Work investor coalition. With insufficient data currently available to investors, the disclosure requested of Next would provide a deeper understanding as to how the company addresses risks around low pay. 

“Retail is one of the UK’s largest employing sectors with a footprint across the country. It has the potential to positively impact on hundreds of thousands of workers yet has some of the most pronounced levels of low pay and staff turnover," added Richards. “Whilst reducing costs in the short term, business models reliant on low pay are at odds with our long-term interests when considering the risks on our portfolio from increasing income inequality and resulting social cohesion.  

We are supportive of company Board’s that are willing to explore ways to raise the wage floor sustainably, and we believe this proposal would be a positive development for Next.”