This is government’s plan – starting with an extra €50 in 2025
Portugal’s minimum wage is still one of the lowest in Europe – but the government is ‘working on it’.
Yesterday, saw agreement with unions and employers to raise the current €820 a month by €50 to €870 from next year.
Unions are not turning cartwheels, but admit it’s a start. Those on minimum wages however have told television stations that no one can actually survive on €820 – or even €870 for that matter – for a full four weeks.
The almost 21% of workers in this country who earn the minimum wage (roughly 838,000 men and women) are bolstered either by the earnings of their partners/ family members, or helped by wider family.
But one has to start somewhere: wages in Portugal have always been ‘too low’ – hence the perennial exodus of qualified professionals; the complaints even by immigrants that the country falls short of their expectations.
The government’s ‘plan’ is to increase the national minimum wage to €1,020 by 2028, taking it up by €50 every year.
According to labour minister Maria Rosário Ramalho, the increase for next year is ‘significant’, and part of a ‘wage enhancement agreement’ which not only focuses on the minimum wage but proposes measures for the enhancement of wages in general, and which is geared towards economic growth and competitiveness.
Employers have shown willing, but insist that they too need ‘compensatory measures’ – like reductions in IRC (business taxes) which were part of the AD ‘electoral pledges’, but which now face a showdown with opposition parties before they can be included in the State Budget.
