Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says the government will push for a significant pay rise for aged care workers, in a bid to increase the number of employees in the sector.

However, Mr Burke said the submissions being made to the Fair Work Commission will not contain a specific amount for how much wages should rise.

The wages umpire is determining whether to lift pay rates for residential and home care workers, following the findings of a royal commission into aged care.

Unions have called for a 25 per cent increase to wages.

Mr Burke said while an exact amount would not be laid out in the government submission, the pay rise for workers should be significant.

“We are in there, providing the evidence that this work is undervalued,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“If we’re wanting to increase, as we are, the number of people working in aged care, then people being paid properly is part of it.”

Mr Burke said the government response in not labelling a figure for the pay rise was in line with a previous submission to the commission calling for the minimum wage to rise.

While Labor did not state a figure, it did indicate it wanted minimum wages to keep up with inflation, which at the time was at 5.1 per cent.

Labor minister Tanya Plibersek said the government would find the extra money needed to fund a wage increase.

“You’ve got to think about what aged care workers are earning at the moment – they’re earning as little as $22 an hour, so you can literally earn more stacking shelves at a supermarket than caring for some of our most vulnerable Australians,” she told the Seven Network.

“We can’t find enough staff to work in aged care. One of the reasons is that … they can’t afford to keep working in aged care because can’t pay the bills on 22 bucks an hour.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he supported a lift in aged care worker wages.

“The government promised at the last election that they would fix the situation in aged care, and we want to make sure that they’re not making a bad situation worse,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

“But we certainly support an increase in the pay for aged care workers.”

Asked what the new level of pay should be, he said: “That’s an issue for the Fair Work Commission”.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said the government’s proposed wage increases needed to be reasonable.

“We know that aged care workers are some of the lowest paid workers in the land, but we also want to make sure that if they do get a pay rise, the system is sustainable,” she told Sky News.

“That the aged cared system can stand up under the weight of that increased cost to their businesses.”

Mr Burke said he was “stunned” at the comments from Senator Hume.

“It’s as though the royal commission never happened,” he said.

“We have an area of serious neglect, where getting more people into the workforce is a critical part of that. That’s the starting point.”

-AAP