Archbishop of York calls for living wage to tackle 'national scandal' of low pay The holes in millions of pay cheques are being plugged by in-work support to the tune of £4bn a year. But why aren't those who are profiting from their workers paying up? Why is the Government having to subsidise businesses which don't pay their employees enough to live on? These are questions we need to answer and act on - fast. The cost of living is rising but wages are not. In the rush for profit, and for high pay at the top, too many companies have forgotten the basic moral imperative that employees be paid enough to live on. The Archbishop said politicians including London Mayor Boris Johnson have begun to "sing the praises of the living wage," but added that despite these interventions few businesses have adopted the living wage. "At the end of the day, though, what workers really need is pay, not platitudes," Dr Sentamu warned. The reality is that despite these warm words, too few companies have stepped up to the mark. For the vast majority of low-paid people in the UK, the living wage remains an abstract concept, not a description of their pay rate. The Archbishop will chair the Living Wage Commission over the next 12 months, which will seek to investigate the barriers to adopting a living wage and how they can be overcome. Dr Sentamu called for people to come forward in a "national conversation," adding: "If you are paid less than the living wage, I want to hear from you. If you are a business which is considering the living wage, or which thinks it would be untenable to adopt, I want to hear from you, too. His intervention comes after it emerged in May that the Archbishop has had an operation for prostate cancer and is expected to "be out of action for some time." Dr Sentamu, who was born in Uganda, is one of the Church's most frank and colourful figures. He has held a number of strong positions on political and social issues.