What do you do for a living? It’s a question we’ve all been asked. We reply without a second thought: tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor- whatever trade keeps a roof over our head, puts food on the table, pays the bills and provides for a few extras.

But for almost 450,000 Scottish workers the answer isn’t so simple. They have jobs but their wages are too low to offer them a living. These "hard working families" are faced with choices like paying for heating or paying for food. They might need to decide between getting a bus home from work every night or buying their child new shoes.

And for the third year in a row the numbers not taking home a living wage have increased, according to research published yesterday by KPMG.

To make ends meet these workers must turn to the state. For some years the rest of us – tax payers – have been stepping in to plug the gap between their income and the cost of living. We have been supplementing the shortfall in their earnings with tax credits.

Basically we’ve been subsidising their employers. Why aren’t we angrier about this scandalous state of affairs? Why do we let employers off with it?

Why do we complicate the issue with jargon and party politics?

Currently we have three categories of low pay:

First, there is the minimum wage which is currently £6.70 an hour for adults aged 21 and over and £5.30 for 18-20 year olds. It is a compulsory minimum level of pay.

Next comes the so-called national living wage proposed by the man we love to hate, George Osborne. He calls it a living wage but that’s politics. All he is doing is adding 50p to the minimum wage and re-branding it. The new rate of £7.20 an hour will start in April 2016 – but only for workers over the age of 25. (Mr Osborne wants it to rise to £9 by 2020.)

The third category is the one we’d all want. It’s the voluntary living wage which rose yesterday by 40p to £8.25 an hour. (That’s £1.05 an hour higher than Mr Osborne’s offer.)

This hourly rate is set by an independent foundation. Its calculation is based on a range of cost-of-living measures including housing, travel and healthy food, with a few extras thrown in for items like birthday presents or the unexpected.

Isn’t that what making a living means – or should mean?

George Osborne’s national living wage also comes with a sting. As it is introduced, tax credits will be cut. The move will hit the poorest hardest. We know people have been outraged. I don’t agree with what he is doing but why is that ire focused solely on the chancellor and his government?

Isn’t there another set of culprits? What about those employers who pay so little? Why aren’t they in the firing line? Why should the tax payer – you and me – be out of pocket on their behalf? Why should workers suffer the indignity of an income so low they need a hand-out?

Isn’t it time these employers were held to account?

Some are putting their house in order. Ikea was first to raise its game. It has committed to pay its workers at least £7.85 an hour next year. It will mean a pay rise for 4,500 staff – half of its workforce.

The supermarkets have entered a pay-rise bidding war. Both Morrisons and Lidl committed to £8.20 for all their store staff. Aldi then topped them at £8.40 claiming it matched lowest store prices with "the best pay and benefits in the industry".

This is one supermarket price war we can all support. But where is Sainsbury’s commitment? What about Tesco and upmarket Waitrose?

The Living Wage Foundation website lists 370 employers who have signed up to pay all workers the living wage. Glasgow University was one of the most recent. Others include giants like Google, Burberry, Standard Life and RBS. But those doing the right thing come in all sizes, from Falkirk Council to An Clachan Café in Kelvingrove Park to The Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

These are intelligent employers. Those who claim raising wags would hit their profits are out of touch. The evidence shows that paying a living wage lowers absenteeism and reduces staff turnover. Productivity rises because staff feel good-will towards a decent employer.

Yet one fifth of Scotland workers earn less than the living wage – and the numbers have risen by 27,000 in the past year. Part-time workers, women and the young are most often affected – those least able to fight back.

They need us to fight on their behalf. And we can.

The Living wage Foundation offers a logo; a Living Wage Employer badge, to those who make the commitment. On their website it is possible to enter a firm’s name to check who has signed up.

So I entered the names of some companies I use and was both disappointed and astonished by the result.

I just presumed Marks and Spencer would be there. Sadly not. Yet last year its Chief Executive earned £2.1 million. John Lewis, that other bastion of decency and good value, was conspicuous by its absence as were many others.

I thought why get mad when it is we, the public, who are letting them off. We should ask to see their Living Wage accreditation and let them know we won’t give them our business until we do. We can hit them in the profit margin – where it hurts them most.

Not joining the voluntary code doesn’t prove a company pays badly. But if they are paying the Living Wage, why not claim the badge? It might pay off if my suggestion works.

You see Christmas is coming. It is the season of splurge spending and we’ll be starting our shopping soon. Who deserves our custom? Who will get our money?

If we all favour stores with the Living Wage logo and steer clear of those that don’t have it, those low wage employers will soon get the message.

We have been reading about how 5,000 children in Scotland could be homeless this Christmas. With almost half a million workers earning so little there will be plenty more households with very little under the Christmas tree – if they even have a tree.

Think of the pressure that must already be putting on those parents. We don’t need to resort to Dickens’ Christmas Carol and the plight of poorly paid Bob Cratchit to bring a tear to the eye. Similar stories will be being lived out all around us. In East Renfrewshire alone, 32 per cent of workers earn less than a living wage.

This isn’t just a Scottish problem. In fact, statistically, we are marginally better off than the UK as a whole where almost six million people earn too little to sustain a decent life.

And yet we are told we are one of the most affluent countries in the world. The situation is scandalous. It is unacceptable. It is time we took action to stop it. George Osborne’s attitude may stink, but if we keep on shopping with companies that pay badly we are not exactly on the moral high ground ourselves.