A decent day’s pay for a decent day’s work – why are we still waiting for this?

Everyone in the UK today knows what political uncertainty is. And they don’t like it. Yet far too many of our neighbours have been living with another kind of uncertainty. It’s faced by families as they struggle to balance the household budget, week in, week out. They don’t know what the next pay packet will hold or if a shift will be cancelled at the last minute. They are wage-earners who struggle to stay afloat, unsure if they will be able to afford the basics of a roof over their heads and food on the table. For them, “uncertainty” is about survival.

When we read that schools in England are installing “community fridges” to provide food for families who otherwise would not be able to pay for it, we know there’s something seriously wrong. My own visits to food banks both cheer me and concern me – it’s great that they demonstrate real concern for people in need, but they also reveal a hidden instability at the heart of our nation. Uncertainty also looms for an estimated 8.4 million people in England who, according to the National Housing Federation, “are living in an unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable home”.

Recent research by KPMG found there are 5.19 million jobs that pay less than the genuine living wage, an independently calculated rate based on what workers and families need to earn to get by. These figures demonstrate the scale of in-work poverty. And within this problem come regional disparities: Northern Ireland is held back by the highest percentage of jobs paying below the living wage at 23%. The north-east (22%) and Yorkshire and Humber (22%) also had higher than average rates of low pay compared to south-east England, where only 15% of jobs pay less than a real living wage.

Today, the Living Wage Foundation announced that the living wage has increased to £9.30 an hour UK-wide and £10.75 in London, to reflect higher living costs in the capital. If the living wage were paid, that would be hundreds of pounds a month back in the lowest-paid workers’ pockets.

Employers are bound by law to pay a notional minimum wage, but that’s not the same as the living wage. The living wage takes into account actual expenditure. Enlightened employers know this and I’m pleased to say there are now almost 6,000 accredited living wage employers that have chosen to pay all their workers a decent day’s pay for a decent day’s work. These companies also report significant business benefits, with higher levels of morale and lower levels of absenteeism.

In September the chancellor announced a significant increase to the national living wage, the minimum wage for over-25s, with an expected target of £10.50 within five years. This increase, from the current level of £8.21, will be welcome for workers on low pay, but it is still far short of a living wage that would cover actual costs. The new real living wage of £9.30 per hour is worth £1.09 per hour more to a full-time worker each year than the national living wage, while the London living wage of £10.75 is £2.54 per hour more, the latter amounting to an average family’s entire food, drink and utilities bills over a year – a life-changing amount.

Related: Thousands of UK workers' pay to rise as living wage increases

The Christian faith makes a strong moral argument for paying the living wage. The Bible urges us to treat one another fairly: those who are on the breadline are to be given back their dignity and self-respect. That means ending their uncertainty.

The living wage movement, started by faith leaders and community organisers in a church hall in east London in 2001, is now a global phenomenon with a reach far beyond the UK’s shores. It’s simply a matter of decency: a decent day’s wage for a decent day’s work. You would need a distorted notion of morality to disagree with that.

• John Sentamu is the archbishop of York