The coalition has warned a potential pay rise for aged care workers could lead to some providers having to compromise the services they provide.
As the government wrote a submission to the wages umpire calling for an increase to minimum pay for workers in the sector, Aged Care Minister Anika Wells suggested such an increase could be "stepped out" over a period of time.
However, opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the government needed to ensure providers wouldn't be priced out of the market following the rise in pay for workers.
"Do the providers then have to actually compromise the types of services they're going to give, the number of people they employ?" she told Sky News on Tuesday.
"This is why, ultimately, it is the Fair Work Commission (which) analyses all of the evidence and comes up with the decision, which we support."
While the government's submission to the commission did not include an exact figure of what the increase should be, unions have called for a pay rise of 25 per cent.
The government's submission said a 25 per cent increase to wages could boost the labour supply in the sector by up to 10 per cent over the next five years.
But Treasury estimates such a rise would increase wages across the economy by less than one per cent, which could lead to a flow-on effect for similar areas.
Ms Wells said any modelling on how much the pay rise would cost was "hypothetical" until the commission handed down its decision.
She pointed to the community workers who were awarded a significant pay rise under the Rudd-Gillard government, which was "stepped out across nine years".
"So the sequencing around that - there's lots more work to do," Ms Wells told reporters on Tuesday.
"We're preparing for all eventualities."
Senator Cash said aged care workers should get a pay rise, but any decision needed to be done by the Fair Work Commission.
"You don't want government setting wages in this country," she said.
Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles said a pay hike for aged care workers was one of the recommendations made by the royal commission into the sector, as well as an election promise.
"We're asking people to look after our loved ones in the final years of their life," he said.
"It is a really meaningful job and it requires a meaningful wage increase."
The submission to the commission was welcomed by the Health Services Union and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.
"After a decade of neglect the new government's recognition of the aged care workforce is a shot in the arm," HSU national president Gerard Hayes said.
"Older Australians will not get the care they deserve until we can attract and retain a workforce to look after them. The government has understood this and taken action."
Current award rates do not adequately reflect the value of aged care workers, ANMF federal secretary Annie Butler said.
Australian Associated Press
