Business groups have warned against a Scottish National party plan to raise the minimum wage at least in line with inflation, if Scotland votes for independence.
Announced last year and included in the Scottish government's white paper on independence, the plan is intended to show that leaving the union would pave the way for greater income equality for Scots.
But business groups say flexibility has been crucial for the success of the UK minimum wage, which was introduced in 1999 by the Labour government and is recommended by a Low Pay Commission of employers, employees and independent members.
"We don't unconditionally support inflationary increases," said a spokesperson for the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland. "Other factors also need to be considered."
David Watt, director of the Institute of Directors in Scotland, said governments should not consider higher pay alone a solution to poverty and that a "fundamental review" of welfare and taxation was needed, whether or not Scotland votes for independence on September 18.
He added that the SNP's proposed Fair Work Commission, which would advise the government on the minimum wage, should be able to propose increases lower than inflation when appropriate.
The CBI, the UK's biggest business lobby, said there was would be need for an expert body in Scotland - like the LPC - to set rates above or below the rate of inflation.
"We believe that politically-set minimum wages often fail to take into account the need to balance raising wages with avoiding higher unemployment caused by making creating jobs more expensive," the CBI said.
The SNP has said the Fair Work Commission would have members from business, trade unions and society but has not said what measure of inflation would be used for minimum wage increases.
In a press release, the Scottish National party said an estimated 150,000 people in Scotland, two-thirds of them women, are expected to be earning £6.50 an hour or less when the UK minimum wage is raised to that level in October.
"Scotland is one of the richest countries in the world - and yet the latest figures show that the number of people living in poverty is on the increase, with a million Scots now living below the bread line," said Christina McKelvie, SNP member of the Scottish parliament.
The party says an independent Scotland would be much more likely to prioritise help for low-income groups than is the Westminster government.
However, the SNP has stopped short of embracing the proposals of an advisory group to the Scottish government that said last month it should seek to raise the minimum wage, currently £6.31 an hour, to equal the £7.65 "living wage".
This October's rise in the UK minimum wage, the first above-inflation increase since 2008, is likely to be the first in a series: politicians from the three major Westminster parties have backed reversing the decline in its value.
Scotland has the lowest proportion of minimum wage jobs in the UK, at 4 per cent of all jobs, compared with 5 per cent in England and nearly 10 per cent in Northern Ireland, according to the Low Pay Commission's annual report.
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