Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says Labor is running a "cruel hoax" by claiming there is a "magic wand" that can help wages grow more quickly.
Increasing economic growth and bringing down the unemployment rate is the only way to help improve wages in the long-term, the senator has told an estimates hearing in Canberra.
"That is the only sustainable way to secure stronger wages growth into the future," he said on Friday.
The minister's comments came after Labor senator Chris Ketter asked Treasury secretary Philip Gaetjens what decisions had been taken in Tuesday's federal budget to improve wage growth.
Senator Cormann accused Labor of seeking a "magic pudding" or "magic wand" to deal with the issue.
"It is a cruel hoax," he said.
The budget shows wages growth is expected to pick up to 2.75 per cent in 2019/20 and 3.25 per cent in the following year.
Those forecasts are more modest than they were in the last budget update in December, when the government was expecting 3 per cent wage growth in 2019/20.
Deputy secretary of treasury's macroeconomic group Meghan Quinn said that at the same time the authority has been revising down wages growth, it has been improving forecasts for jobs growth.
That's because companies have recently been prioritising employing more people over paying their existing workforce more.
Senator Cormann said wages growth would have been lower if the coalition government had not addressed the deteriorating employment rate it inherited from the previous Labor government.
"The position that we're in is better than it would have been."
In his budget-reply speech on Thursday evening, Labor leader Bill Shorten reiterated his claim that the upcoming federal election will be a "referendum on wages".
Labor says it can help turn things around by reversing cuts to penalty rates for people who work on Sundays and public holidays and stopping dodgy labour hire arrangements.
Ensuring tradespeople are paid on time for projects funded by the federal government will also help, the opposition believes.
