Scotland’s most senior trade unionist has urged Humza Yousaf to introduce a new income tax rate on earnings over £75,000.
STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said a rise should be part of a broader suite of wealth taxes to pay for public services.
She also said more strikes are “unavoidable” if the Scottish Government sticks with its public sector pay policy.
During the SNP leadership contest, Yousaf cited STUC research on new taxes as a template for any administration he led.
The new First Minister has suggested a new tax rate income earned between £43,663 and £125,140.
Foyer, who will make a keynote speech at STUC Congress in Dundee, put a number on where the tax band should fall.
“I think that having some sort of additional levy on people earning over around £75,000 would be a very sensible option for Scotland and would be a progressive move.
“So that's something we would support and it aligns with some of the information that was in our tax report that we produced prior to the budget.”
She also called for a “deeper look at how we tax wealth more widely” and expressed disappointment more work had not been carried out on scrapping council tax and assessing land values.
With the First Minister set to outline his “priorities” in office this week, Foyer said:
“I think one of his top priorities should be to review the public sector pay policy. I don't think 3.5% is going to cut it. If we want to avoid the sort of industrial strife that we've seen over the past year, then that needs to be an urgent consideration.
“I also think he needs to keep the cost of living crisis right at the top of his agenda, and remember that much of poverty is workplace poverty and worker poverty.”
She said of the waves of industrial action over the past eight months: “I think that the strikes have undoubtedly worked. We've actually shown and proven that when workers come together and take action, they are able to make substantial gains.”
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here .
