Other union leaders have joined AMWU National Secretary, Dave Oliver, to reject and discredit hypocritical calls for wage restraint.

In the debate about wage increases causing inflation, Mr Oliver last week said that suppressing wages was not the solution to combating inflation.

“Workers endured wage restraint for a long time under the Howard Government,” he said.

“It’s time that workers regained lost ground, particularly for the low paid workers who are struggling to make ends meet with the rise in cost of living and interest rates.”

The man appointed to set minimum wages under the former Howard Government’s Fair Pay Commission, Professor Ian Harper, handed out wage increases of between $5 and $10 per week to minimum wage earners last year, but pocketed a $38 000 pay increase himself.

The ACTU has joined the debate, and signalled that its minimum wage claim, to be finalised next month, will argue that employees need to catch up.

As concerns grow about the tight labour market and inflation, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Wednesday everyone in the economy needed to exercise "restraint".

Mr Oliver agreed that Australian executives should show restraint and even lower their wages, and said that workers’ share of profits was lower than 10 years ago.

He also pointed out that disparity between workers and CEOs was at an all time high, with CEOs now earning 37 times that of the average earning worker.

“Blaming workers for inflation is not a credible position when it is the top end of town who need to be brought under control,” said Mr Oliver.