If elected prime minister Bill Shorten will promptly scrap the coalition's "insipid" wage submission and ask the industrial umpire to raise award wages.
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A Shorten government would axe the coalition's submission to the annual wage review and file a new proposal to raise workers' wages as soon as July 1.
In a letter on Monday, the opposition leader told the Fair Work Commission president to expect a proposal to increase award rates if Labor wins Saturday's election.
Labor argues the coalition government's submission on award wages has failed workers and it must be replaced.
"In the event we're elected next Saturday, one of our first acts will be to withdraw from the old government's meaningless, insipid, useless submission," Mr Shorten told reporters in Burnie.
He said it was "unprecedented" for a government to argue so strongly for the independent umpire to increase wages.
"But it is unprecedented to live in a time where we have chronic wages stagnation, which is effectively eating into the household incomes of millions of Australian workers," Mr Shorten said.
The Labor leader said he would argue on the first day of government for a real increase to award rates.
The opposition has made wages a key election issue, arguing sluggish growth in earnings is being outstripped by cost of living pressures and corporate profits.
Mr Shorten's promised intervention comes after the Australian Council of Trade Unions signalled it would get involved in the minimum wage review.
ACTU president Michele O'Neil will become the first person in that role to address a minimum wage case before the industrial umpire in decades.
She will present the union movement's case, for a six per cent rise or about $43 a week, to a Fair Work Commission hearing in Sydney on Wednesday.
"The minimum wage should not just be enough to stop you starving, it should be enough to provide for a decent life for all full-time workers," she said.
Labor has also promised to boost wages for childcare workers, as well as restore penalty rates.
Company profits have risen 39 per cent while wages have gone up five per cent, Labor argues.
Australian Associated Press
