MINISTERS must introduce a £10 an hour minimum wage, Britain’s largest union insisted yesterday, as new figures revealed that a quarter of workers outside London are stuck on poverty pay.

The Office for National Statistics reported that the proportion of jobs paying less than £7.85 an hour — the minimum set by the Living Wage Foundation — rose from 21 per cent to 23 per cent between April 2012 and April 2014. In London, where the living wage is set at £9.15 an hour, the proportion paying less soared by six points to 19 per cent.

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: “This is a double whammy. Not only are bosses failing to pay the living wage but these workers are the very people who will be hit by the savage cuts to working tax credits.

“Ministers are allowing the drawbridge to be drawn up against the low paid getting a proper wage and condemning millions to a life of grinding poverty, where putting food on the table is a daily struggle.

He said British companies could “well afford” to pay £10 an hour and should be forced to do so.

His call echoes a long-running campaign pioneered by fast-food workers and the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union.

The Living Wage Foundation has accredited companies including Barclays and RBS as ethical employers, alongside many smaller firms.

The government’s so-called living wage, which will only be compulsory for workers over 25, was branded “phoney” by Mr Turner. It will be set at just £7.20 an hour when it comes into force next April.

The study found that the worst-affected part of Britain was the Tory heartland of west Somerset, where a shocking 41.9 per cent of workers are on poverty wages.

A Living Wage Foundation spokesman said: “These figures demonstrate that, while the economy may be recovering as a whole, there is a real problem with ensuring everyone benefits, and low pay is still prevalent in Britain today.”

Labour’s shadow employment minister Emily Thornberry said: “With six million jobs paying less than enough to live on, now is exactly the wrong time for a multibillion-pound cut to working people’s tax credits.

“The government’s approach is completely wrong and needs an urgent rethink.”