Most voters back Labor bid to boost wages amid concerns big business has too much power, Essential poll finds

Labor’s Tony Burke and the Australian Industry Group’s Innes Willox, who warns higher wages with no productivity trade-offs ‘will only increase all our pain’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Twice as many voters in marginal seats think big business has too much power compared with unions, with most supporting Labor initiatives to boost workers’ pay.

Those are the key findings of a new Essential poll of 1,207 people conducted for the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which unions have seized on to warn employer campaigns against changes to lift wages will fall flat.