WINCHESTER Cathedral has confirmed its staff will receive a “significant” pay increase after claims jobs are paying below the living wage.

It comes amid revelations that jobs in the Church of England are paying below the £7.85 an hour – the living wage outside of London.

An allegation has been made that some cathedral jobs pay as low as £6.60 an hour to staff aged 18 and over – nearly £10 below the city’s hourly average wage of £16.22.

This week the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby admitted the revelations were “embarrassing” but said the church had made clear the “move towards” the living wage was a gradual process which would inevitably take some time.

Referring to a pastoral letter issued to parishes last week by the church’s House of Bishops, he said: “We talked about the need to move towards that, and Archbishop of York John Sentamu carefully said that we need to move towards paying the Living Wage,” he said.

“The ‘move towards’ bit got left out, and the sun points out that Canterbury and Lichfield cathedrals are advertising for a post, paying below the Living Wage.”

“It's embarrassing, of course, I won't say otherwise,” he added.

“But in the light of transparency, which I welcome, I will say we are a complex institution and every parish church and cathedral is an independent charity, as is every diocese.”

Media and communications officer at Winchester Cathedral, Simon Barwood, confirmed the cathedral would address the issue during this year’s pay review.

Winchester Cathedral is fully committed to moving towards paying all staff the living wage and, as part of the 2015 pay review, have begun to address this,” he said. “This year, therefore, a significant increase in pay will be awarded to those staff who are below the living wage threshold.”

The Archbishop added that change to a living wage would come “gradually”, because each of the independent charities lacked the resources to move more quickly.

“We don't have a centralised method of control,” he said. “I'm not very keen on centralised control where, from far away, you tell people what to do.”

“As charity they have to do that gradually.

“You'll see that - and you'll see the accusations of hypocrisy, but make up your own mind as to what it is.”