UPDATE: Decree-law updating Portugal’s National Minimum Wage made official

UPDATE: Saturday, November 18 at 9:15 pm

AN increase in Portugal’s National Minimum Wage (SMN) has been approved after a meeting of the Council of Ministers.

They convened as always this Thursday, November 9, with a statement subsequently being released that read: ‘This increase represents an increase of €60 per month and corresponds to the largest increase in the guaranteed minimum monthly remuneration ever seen, of 7.9 per cent’.

This increase in the SMN from the current €760 to the new rate of €820 comes into force from January 1, 2024, the note detailed.

The update of the SMN is established by Government decree, after consulting the social partners. Its value consists of the reinforcement of the agreement signed in October in the Social Concertation between the Government and social partners, with the exception of CGTP and CIP – Confederação Empresarial de Portugal, which were left out.

Portugal’s government is in the middle of political turmoil

Today’s approval took place while the Government was in the middle of a political crisis. Prime Minister, António Costa, offered his resignation to the President of the Republic to resign on Tuesday 7, and his resignation was promptly accepted by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Also approved in today’s Council of Ministers was the decree-law that: ‘establishes measures to value workers who perform public functions, changing the remuneration base and updating the value of Public Administration remunerations for 2024, within the framework of compliance with salary negotiation’.

According to the statement: ‘This change in the remuneration base to €821.83 and update of the Public Administration remuneration value for 2024 goes, again, beyond the commitment made in the Multi-Year Agreement for the Valorisation of Public Administration Workers, in 2022’.

Which other decisions were approved?

Another decree-law was also approved, which established: ‘Measures to value workers in a set of special careers, encouraging the reinforcement of qualifications and creating conditions of greater attractiveness for retaining talents, establishing fair pay differentiation in relation to careers of different degrees of complexity and remuneration enhancement in order to make the option for public employment more attractive’.

Also noteworthy is the approval of the decree-law for the: ‘transfer of the responsibilities of the pension fund from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) to Caixa Geral de Aposentações, safeguarding the rights of INE workers’.

The resolution amending the Return Program was approved: ‘Extending the mandate until December 31, 2026, of the Contact Point for the Return of Emigrants responsible for operationalisation and monitoring, taking into account the significant interest and demand it has achieved, with around 15,457 people covered’, as reported by sicnoticias.pt.