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Labor leader Bill Shorten has pledged to lift the minimum wage, claiming that the statutory $18.93 per hour is "too low" for the average adult to look after their family.
The announcement comes just weeks after the ACTU issued its own demands that the minimum wage be lifted to represent at least 60 per cent of the median wage.
That would represent an increase of 10 per cent to the current minimum wage.
Analysis by the Australian National University shows that the minimum-to-median wage ratio peaked at 65 per cent in the mid-1980s and dropped as low as 52 per cent in 2008.
It bounced back to 55 per cent in 2018.
Labor has stopped short of putting a specific number on its proposed "living wage", saying only that the law needed to better reflect the rising cost of living.
"This country can't just be a country where the top end do well and everyone else struggles," Mr Shorten said.
"This country works best when everyone gets a fair go.
"When it's not just the investment banker in the skyscraper getting the increase in profits, but it's the cleaner who cleans that office at night when no one sees them working on the low wage."
Mr Shorten today rejected claims that he had been engaging in "class warfare", but his recent comments on the issue have rankled some business owners.
Syd Weddell has been growing his Melbourne chain of Essential Ingredient stores for 30 years but said he had not given himself a pay rise in more than a decade.
He was offended when, last month, Bill Shorten called bosses opposing a rise in the minimum wage "fat cats".
"I'm sorry that the leader of the opposition has politicised this. It's insulting," Mr Weddell said.
"We are not a divided society in terms of fat cats and the poor who work for them. That is not the case in my experience of the vast number of business people I know."
Mr Shorten said Labor's announcement recognised that wages in Australia had flatlined over the past five years, registering the lowest pace of wages growth in 70 years.
Minimum wages creeping up already
Each year, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) sets the minimum wage by considering five objectives.
These include an examination of the relative living standards of the low paid, the broader economic impact, business viability, cost of living and a fair go for young workers.
The lowest an employer can legally pay anyone is $719.20 a week, or $18.93 an hour.
The commission estimates about 241,000 Australians fall into that category, while another two million workers affected by FWC decisions belong to an industry covered by an award.
Minimum wages across all awards grew by more than the inflation rate in both 2017 and 2018 — by 3.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.
University of NSW economist Richard Holden claims pay increases of the magnitude sought by the ACTU would be reckless, given the fragile nature of the Australian jobs market.
While the unemployment rate is at a 10-year low of 4.9 per cent, the number of people "underemployed" — wanting to work more hours than they can get — is markedly higher at 8.1 per cent.
"So we're really playing with fire by increasing the minimum wage if those increases are going to be in the 10 per cent region," Professor Holden said.
"It will probably lead to increased unemployment, particularly for those who are most vulnerable and the people who are on the minimum wage."
The biggest cost for Mr Weddell's business is the wages bill for his 100 staff. He said raising the minimum pay and awards would be "catastrophic".
"If wages were forced up by 5 or 10 per cent we would definitely see store closures," he said. "It would be untenable. I would have to lay people off."
But for forklift driver Dave Hiah, experience working for the Chemist Warehouse chain hasn't given him much sympathy for the plight of business owners.
"[Chemist Warehouse are] growing every year, opening more stores, expanding further and further — but we stay the same," Mr Hiah said.
"We're on the lowest we can get paid and it's insecure work."
The 35-year-old supports a partner and three young children on $26.14 an hour, but claims the work is unreliable and that he receives no holiday or sick pay.
"At any time they can just say we don't need you tomorrow and you're done, that's it."
For two and a half years, Mr Hiah's award wage has been paid by a labour hire company even though his only work comes from the discount pharmacy chain where he picks up shifts often five days a week.
He's been on strike with other Chemist Warehouse workers for two weeks to secure better wages and conditions.
The ABC has been in contact with both Chemist Warehouse and the labour hire company that provides its staff. Neither has provided any comment.
'If a business has to close, it employs no one'
Labor said it intends to overhaul industrial relations laws to help the low-paid workers.
A Shorten-led government would also legislate to stop the practices of labour hire companies that allow businesses to shirk their responsibilities to pay workers leave and other entitlements.
Reacting to Mr Shorten's announcement, the small business minister Michaelia Cash warned that Labor was putting people's jobs at risk.
"What they don't understand is that if a business has to close, it employs no one," Ms Cash said.
Australia's minimum wage is the highest in the world in purchasing power parity terms, according to a 2018 analysis by the World Economic Forum.
The Reserve Bank has stopped short of giving support to Labor and the ACTU's calls for a "living wage" despite stubbornly low readings for both consumer confidence and spending.
Consumer spending accounts for 60 per cent of GDP.
At a speech in Sydney this morning, the RBA's assistant governor, Luci Ellis, said Australia's unemployment rate would have to get even lower than its current 4.9 per cent before the laws of demand and supply would produce "materially faster wages growth".
"The experience of other countries has also shown, if the labour market tightens enough, wages growth does eventually pick up," Ms Ellis said.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, bill-shorten, small-business, melbourne-3000