Equal pay settlements in Scotland could raise council tax levels by £80 next year.
Local authority leaders will tell the Scottish Executive’s finance committee that the taxpayer will bear the entire cost of boosting the pay of female staff.
This is because ministers have refused so far to underwrite the extra costs.
The Scottish Executive has insisted that councils negotiated the fair pay deal independently six years ago and must now fund it themselves.
Several Scottish councils, including Glasgow and Aberdeen City Councils, have been facing industrial unrest because of ongoing equal pay claims being negotiated between unions and management.
Council umbrella group Cosla estimates the final bill to be somewhere between £310m and £560m.