“Salary Stanning”: The minimum wage is crushing the midfielder.
If the minimum wage has been increasing in recent years and is “catching” the average salary and creating a “salary stagnation”.
The warning is from economist Eugénio Rosa, who tells what the phenomenon weakens the incentive to qualification, blocks social mobility and leads to less productivity.
We are turning into a “minimum wage country”considers, and it is “urgent to take action.”
In 2024, the minimum wage represented 85.3% of median income. This trend has been verified since 2022, according to the economist, has serious consequences for economic development and contributes to the emigration of qualified workers-about 50,000 per year.
“With this policy of income, maintenance and generalization of very low income for workers and most of the population, sustained and high economic growth is impossible and develop the country,” he says.
The minimum wage has become a political instrumentalso believes João César das Neves, pointing his finger to governments.
“This instrument is demagogic, because it is companies and not the state that pays the minimum wage, the state pretends to improve workers’ lives without spending a penny. The only way to solve this would be to avoid demagogy and consider the reality of the labor market. But since 2005 almost all governments have fallen into the same trap,” he says to the sunrise.
Although the growth of SMN follows the nominal GDP, the proportion of salaries in GDP has been decreasing, remembers PAULO MONTEIRO ROSAEconomist at Carregosa Bank.
The “crushing” between wages is due to the valorization of the minimum wage, salary stagnation in the low-qualification sectors and the predominance of sectors such as tourism and agriculture in the country’s economic structure.
“This phenomenon can be explained by three main factors. Firstly, the policy of sustained valorization of the minimum wage, with an important role in the mitigation of labor poverty. Second, salary stagnation in many low -qualification sectors, where the growth in remuneration has been modest, ”adds the economist.
“Finally, the Employment structure itselfwith a growing weight of sectors such as services, agriculture or tourism, contributes to a lower average salary, ”he says.
This scenario leads to less incentive to qualification, lower productivity and increased inequality. The solution can go through paths such as investment in technical and digital training, support for Innovation in SMEs and fiscal reform that relieves the load on average income, according to experts.
At European level, Portugal occupies an intermediate position in the ranking of minimum wages, with 1,015 euros per month, paid in 14 months. But When adjusted to purchasing power, the country goes down to 13th place.
