THIS week’s strikes by public sector workers, angry at a 1% pay offer after years of pay freezes, has reminded me of the scandal of low pay and the call for all workers to be paid a living wage.

Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has spoken out strongly against the national scandal of low pay in our country, which has got worse since the recession ushered in years of rising inflation and static wages.

For the first time in this country the majority of those in poverty are in work. 5.2 million workers in the UK earn less than the £7.65 an hour (£8.80 in London) that is calculated as a wage providing for a basic but decent standard of living.

The Archbishop has rightly said that it is a ‘basic moral imperative that employees be paid enough to live on’.

Paying less than a living wage is unfair both on the individuals and on the taxpayers who have to plug the gap through in-work benefits.

Archbishop Sentamu has chaired the independent Commission on the Living Wage which reported last month.

Their report calls for all employers to consider the case for paying a living wage – and for the government to set a lead by ensuring that all those employed in the public sector receive a living wage by 2020.

You can read their report at http://livingwagecommission.org.uk/

The bible calls us, time and again, to be just in our dealings with each other and in particular to be just to those who are less powerful than we are.

Our fellow men and women are our responsibility – we cannot cast off responsibility for our brothers and sisters who are like us made in the image of God.

So one of the Proverbs says: ‘Those who oppress the poor insult their maker’ that is, insult God himself. I would encourage us all to support the campaign for the living wage – and to try, as far as is in our own control, to act justly towards others.

Toby Webber - Chaplain to the Bishop of Blackburn