Loading “For more than a century, minimum wages have been set by an independent body - not the government, nor Parliament." Mr Shorten is under pressure to increase the living wage amid a renewed push by the Australian Council of Trade Unions. In its submission to the commission's annual minimum wage review to be lodged this week, the union peak body will demand an initial increase of 6 per cent from $719.20 to $762.20 - or $43 a week - for the 2.23 million Australian workers who depend on the minimum wage. Under the plan, the rate would increase by 10.7 per cent over two years, bringing the minimum wage in line with the ACTU's "living wage" target of 60 per cent of the national median wage, or $852 a week.

The ACTU will kick off its industrial relations campaign with a rally in Attorney-General Christian Porter's marginal seat of Pearce in Western Australia. "No one in Australia should be forced to work below the poverty line," ACTU secretary Sally McManus said. Speaking in Canberra on Tuesday, Mr Shorten noted governments could make a submission to encourage the independent Fair Work Commission to lift wages, but for the first time said "another tool or mechanism which is available is to change the legislation". "We’ll have more to say on this in coming weeks," he said. University of Adelaide employment law expert Andrew Stewart said Labor could amend the Fair Work Act to require the commission to set a "living wage" but predicted Mr Shorten would likely take the approach of only "encouraging" it to do so.

He said Labor was unlikely to remove the requirement for the commission to also consider "the performance and competitiveness of the national economy, including productivity" when deciding by how much to lift pay packets. Professor Stewart said it "would not be feasible" to reach the ACTU target of 60 per cent of the median full-time wage within a year, saying a phased introduction of this target would likely need to be implemented over more than two years. Data from the Australian Council of Social Services shows the share of wage-earning Australians in poverty is growing, a statistic seized upon by Mr Shorten to claim the status quo was not working. "It simply isn't fair, nor sustainable for economic confidence in this country that an adult could work full-time and be earning $18.93 an hour at the minimum wage before tax," he said. "We trust the Fair Work Commission. But periodically, they do get it wrong."

Loading A legislative change to the Fair Work Act would dwarf any of the other six wage proposals floated by Mr Shorten in an election he has labelled a "referendum on wages".

Mr Shorten has pledged to restore Sunday penalty rates, target sham contracting, close down dodgy visas, crackdown on labour hire operators, and close the gender pay gap. He is yet to unveil a detailed policy on industry wide bargaining, which Labor is expected to roll out in low-paid industries. Research published by the Reserve Bank of Australia last year found that there was "no evidence that small, incremental increases in award wages" resulted in higher unemployment but noted that at some point there would be an impact.