At a Labour Day rally on Monday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced she would launch a parliamentary inquiry into allegations of wage theft.

"This is a really big issue, something that's dear to me," she said.

"Thirty years ago, I worked at Expo and the workers there were being ripped off, not being paid for their fair wages."

A parliamentary committee will travel Queensland listening to workers' stories.

Ms Palaszczuk said the government would "take action" following the inquiry, flagging potential higher penalties.

"We know that there are fines in place, if we need to increase those fines, these are options that the parliamentary committee will look at," she said.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said wage theft in Queensland and across Australia was becoming a "national disgrace".

She pointed to recent wages disputes at companies such as Domino's and 7-Eleven as the impetus for the inquiry.

"We have seen time and time again examples of large corporations that have been ripping workers off," Ms Grace said.

"We want to know how extensive this is here in Queensland."

Ms Grace conceded the issue was regulated federally.

"But what we want to do is find out the evidence in relation to the wages theft in medium and small businesses and right across Queensland in the private sector," she said.

"That will then give us the details to bring about change and to pressurise the Turnbull government to put additional funds in to make sure that workers get their fair wages."

Ms Grace said the Fair Work Ombudsman did not have enough resources to police wages theft.

LNP leader Deb Frecklington said the wages inquiry was a waste of time because the state government had no control over federal wages legislation.

The inquiry will report its findings later in 2018.