Castle of São Jorge, in Lisbon
The salary difference between Lisbon and the rest of the country is increasing. 30% of workers and 22% of companies are in the Lisbon district. Economists criticize unequal public investment and lack of incentive to private interior.
The latest data from the Strategy and Planning Office (GEP) of the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security reveal that more and more “Portugal is Lisbon and the rest is landscape”.
For example, Lisbon pays more 335 euros that Porto, 534 euros than Braga and 643 euros than in Bragança.
GEP data also indicate that Lisbon had, in 2023, 30% of national employment, with almost one million (994,831) of workers in a national total of 3,296,134. In addition, 22.6% of companies are in the Lisbon district.
The accounts are shown this Monday by (JN), which details that between 2013 and 2023, the distance between the capital and the remaining districts increased in the salary, in the number of workers and companies.
In an interview with the same newspaper, the director of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto, Oscar Afonsopoints out that this “is the most evident symptom of the persistence of a unbalanced development model ”.
For the economist, this model “favors the metropolis and marginalize vast areas of the interior and north/centerconfirming a structural stagnation of the country’s economic geography ”.
According to the experts, at this time, the political speeches of “decentralization” and “territorial cohesion” do not hit right with reality Two numbers.
To JN, the economist Eugénio Rosa regrets that “despite all the beautiful words of successive governments, aiming at national cohesion through a balanced development of the whole countrythat never happened”.
The reason for this phenomenon
The economist João Cherryprofessor at the University of Minho, explains that this wage inequality between districts is due to the fact that, in Lisbon, the employed population has a higher level of education, which have higher average remuneration.
Regarding the concentration of companies, João Cerejeira explains it for the “productivity gains associated with the agglomeration of productive activity”.
“Lisbon is the main urban area of the country, benefiting from the proximity and greater density of companies and human capital, which allows scale gains, greater ease in the diffusion of knowledge, creating conditions more favorable to innovation. airport From the country also facilitates the global connection, with advantages for companies installed there, ”says the economist.
In turn, Oscar Afonso points out that This scenario is the result of “inequality in public investment and the attraction of private investmentsince public investment policies have historically favored areas already dynamic or developed, in particular Lisbon, or have been poorly applied inside, without creating structuring effects. ”
The economist also regrets the “lack of robust incentives for decentralization Economic, since tax regimes and investment support fail to create real competitive advantages for installation outside this metropolitan area. ”
Eugénio Rosa shares the opinion, but plays on another point: the expert adds that when the private investor invests in the countryside, tends to indicate that he wants to “To pay lower salariestaking advantage of no alternatives ”.
