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| Live: BBC News special coverage of President Obama's State of the Union address |
USA: The White House said Mr. Obama would unveil an executive order to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 (£6.10) an hour for new federal contract workers.
The Democratic president is facing some of his lowest approval ratings.
"Let's make this a year of action," Mr. Obama said.
Noting that inequality has deepened and upward mobility stalled, he would offer "a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class".
"America does not stand still - and neither will I," he said. "So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families."
Time running out
Just over a year after his re-election, Mr. Obama must contend with determined opposition from the Republican Party, which controls the House of Representatives and has the numbers in the Senate to block his agenda.
Time is running short before Washington DC turns its attention to the 2016 race to elect his successor, threatening to sideline him even with three years remaining in office.
Mr. Obama is expected to address long-term joblessness, expansion of early childhood education and infrastructure spending.
He will reiterate his call for a broad rise in the national minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour, say White House officials.
Mr. Obama's executive order raising the hourly rate of federal contract workers including cleaning staff and construction workers will only apply to future contracts. It prompted a swift response from Republicans.
House Speaker John Boehner said the impact would be "close to zero" and warned that such a move would cost jobs. He told reporters his party would watch to ensure the president did not exceed his authority through the use of such executive actions.
"Sounds to me like he wants to go around the constitution," said Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, the 2012 party's vice-presidential candidate.
"If you want to write a law, the elected representatives here in House and Senate, the legislative branch, they write the laws. Presidents don't write laws."
Republican rebuttals
The president is also tipped to urge the Republican House of Representatives to support a broad overhaul of the US immigration system.
One American child in five lives below the poverty line - the BBC visits Washington DC's deprived Anacostia district
Last year, the Senate passed a bill that included a path to citizenship for some of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US.
The House has thus far declined to hold a vote on that legislation, although in recent days US media have reported the chamber's Republican leaders are weighing a series of more limited measures.
Among those joining First Lady Michelle Obama in the gallery will be Jason Collins, a professional basketball player who came out as gay last year; two survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing and the fire chief of a tornado-hit Oklahoma town.
After Mr. Obama's speech, three Republicans are expected to offer rebuttals, a departure from the tradition of the opposition choosing a single voice to follow the president.
Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state will deliver the official response on behalf of the Republican Party.
Republican Kentucky Senator and presumed 2016 presidential hopeful Rand Paul, a favourite of the party's libertarian wing, will release a taped address, while Utah Senator Mike Lee will offer a response on behalf of the populist, anti-tax tea party movement.
