SUPERMARKET Sainsbury’s claims to be the best-paying of the major players that dominate the food retail sector in Britain, which doesn’t say a great deal.

They all have records of accumulating huge amounts of profits out of shoppers in recent decades, which they put down to the genius of a small number of chief executives who are rewarded with salaries and bonuses adding up to millions of pounds a year.

In contrast, the poor bloody infantry — workers who stack the supermarket shelves, store goods in warehouses or face the public every day as they operate cash registers or answer customer queries and complaints — are paid wages at a level that makes it impossible to make ends meet.