Nearly three-quarters of frontline care workers in England are earning under a "real" living wage, new research has revealed on Thursday.
According to data compiled by the Living Wage Foundation, the number of workers falling under the threshold is disproportionately high in the north, where care homes have been worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The campaigning organisation is urging the government to "rethink" how it treats the sector and is demanding "adequate funding" for key workers.
"We have clapped these workers and are proud of them, but that fact is not something Britain can be proud of. It’s time to rethink how government, public bodies and businesses work together to value the contribution of essential workers".
In the north-east, a shocking 82% of care staff made less than the national £9.50 an hour real living wage, while the proportion in the north-west was 78%.
England has over 832,000 frontline care workers in employment, more than 600,000 of whom are seeing wages under the minimum income required to meet basic needs.
Cat Hobbs, Director of the campaign group 'We Own It', described the figures as "absolutely shocking".
"People doing some of the most vital, valuable work in our country - are currently being paid below the Living Wage. But sadly it isn't surprising", she said.
Hobbs described the current trajectory toward the private sector failing to provide adequate support and called for the service to be brought back into public ownership.
"For far too long, the care sector has been built in a system which undermines workers and fails the people receiving care. That system is a direct result of the policy of privatisation, which has seen private profit put before the needs of people giving and receiving care", she added.
"This has to stop. We desperately need a care service where workers are fairly treated and fairly paid, and where the old and vulnerable are looked after properly. We'll only get that by ending the scandal of privatisation, and bringing the care service into public hands".
The figures come amid increasing calls to reform the sector in alignment with NHS wages, which see all nurses make above the threshold.
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, posted a tweet saying that care workers have "put their lives on the line throughout this pandemic".
"The very least they deserve is a pay rise", he said.
According to the Fawcett Society, eight-in-ten care workers are women, with an overrepresentation of BAME and migrant women in the sector. Front-line care workers are more likely to be parents or carers and three times more likely to be single parents than the UK's entire workforce.
Care Workers are considered to be "essential workers" by the UK government and have had to deal with the brunt of the coronavirus crisis.
In 1993, 95% of care at home was provided by local councils. Since the early 90s, consecutive governments have outsourced care work and homes to the private sector. The majority of care home providers are now owned by private equity businesses such as Terra Firma.