Campaigners are to raise the spectre of Scrooge and the “ghost of Christmas present” at Associated British Food’s annual shareholder meeting on Friday over low-paid staff at its Primark chain.

The Rev Graham Hunter of St John’s Church, Hoxton, which is an active member institution of Citizens UK, is to dress as a lead character from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and quiz Primark’s parent company on whether it is willing to offer staff fair pay at Friday’s annual shareholder meeting as part of a campaign to persuade more retailers to pay the living wage. The “stop scrooging” campaign, also backed by ShareAction, has calculated that employees should be paid at least £9.15 an hour in London and £7.85 outside London in order to afford life’s essentials such as food and housing.

Hunter said: “Christmas is about care, compassion and giving. I hope that by asking Primark to pay their staff a living wage the retailer will realise the benefits they can gain both reputationally, but also the increased loyalty, motivation and productivity their staff will give back to them once they feel they are valued by their employer.

“Paying the living wage is the right moral decision to make and a savvy business choice.”

Sainsbury’s, Argos, M&S, Debenhams, Sports Direct, Next, Carphone Warehouse, John Lewis, Tesco, Morrisons, and B&Q will also be targeted. Activists will attend Debenhams’ annual shareholder meeting next week while a “punk magician” named “G” will lead activists in replacing pricing labels on shelves with spoof labels which call on stores and shoppers to support the living wage for shop staff.

Campaigners will also tweet retailers asking them to pay staff the living wage using the hashtag #stopscrooging.

Eighteen of Britain’s FTSE 100 companies are now accredited living wage employers, including big names such as Barclays, Pearson, and Legal & General. However, none of the UK’s large listed retailers pay the living wage, with shop assistants and bar staff among the most likely to live “hand to mouth”, according to independent research by Cambridge Policy Consultants.

Rhys Moore, director of the Living Wage Foundation, says: “Low pay costs the taxpayer money – firms that pay the minimum wage are seeing their workers’ pay topped up through the benefits system.”

Research, conducted by Markit for KPMG, shows 43% of part-time workers earn less than the living wage, compared with 13% of full-time employees.

• This article was amended on 2 December 2014. An earlier version incorrectly described the Rev Graham Hunter as the leader of Citizens UK.