Social care workers across Scotland are quitting to take jobs in supermarkets because of the higher wages on offer, Nicola Sturgeon has been warned.
Anas Sarwar raised the issue today of poor working conditions across the care sector after inviting staff for a meeting at Holyrood.
The Scottish Labour leader told MSPs there was already a recruitment crisis in care homes with 75 per cent reporting job vacancies.
He called for Nicola Sturgeon to commit to a wage rise of £12 per hour, rising to £15 per hour, instead of the current £10.90 offer on the table.
But the First Minister said such an increase would cost £1.75 billion and called on Labour to explain how they would pay for it.
Big supermarket chains across the UK have raised wages several times in recent years as retailers battle retain staff.
Aldi announced it would offer its warehouse workers a 20 per cent wage rise from February 1.
The Scottish Labour leader said the crisis in the NHS could not be fixed without first resolving the crisis in social care.
Sarwar said: "The proposals outlined by the First Minister there have been widely criticised by frontline staff as no where near enough to meet the demands of the crisis we face.
"The First Minister should not ignore the facts - they'll be paying £10.90 an hour to social care staff, which represents a 3.8 per cent pay increase.
"That's a 40p increase at a time when inflation is running at nine per cent and NHS staff are being offered an average of seven and a half per cent."
Sarwar added: "40p is not going to address the on-going workforce crisis. There is no solution to the NHS crisis without a solution to the social care crisis."
The Scottish Labour leader said 75 per cent of care homes across the country were already reporting staff vacancies.
He continued: "We heard that staff are leaving to work in Sainsbury's, Costa and Lidl because they are getting better pay and conditions.
"Will the First Minister finally commit to an immediate pay increase to £12 an hour, rising to £15 an hour, for social care workers across Scotland?"
Sturgeon responded: "In terms of pay increases, over the past two years there has been a 14.7 per cent increase for social care workers."
She added: "I want us to go further but we have to be able to fund that. To increase pay to £15 per hour for all social care workers, as Labour is asking, would cost upwards of an additional £1.75 billion.
"Labour hasn't set out how they would fund that or what they would have to cut as a consequence.
"Yes, we want to see pay increase further but we have to do that in a properly funded way - that is responsible government."
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