Government wants to remove weight from social consultation in defining the minimum wage

The UGT accuses the Government of wanting to change the social role of the minimum wage and end the guarantee that it must guarantee basic living conditions for families.

The draft labor reform presented by the Government is generating strong opposition from the UGT due to the changes planned in the definition of the national minimum wage (SMN). The proposal introduces a change in focus: instead of prioritizing the needs of workers, updating the minimum wage would be based mainly on “income policy adequacy” criteria and prices”, and may also use national or international references.

Currently, the law establishes that the minimum wage must be set annually after consultation with the Social Coordination and taking into account factors such as the cost of living, productivity and the basic needs of workers. For UGT, this change represents a loss of “relevance of the social role of the minimum wage”depriving the function of guaranteeing decent living conditions for the most vulnerable families. In a statement entitled “Resolute no to labor reform for employers”, the union center accuses the Government of wanting to reduce the protective nature of the SMN.

The discussion comes at a time when the new minimum wage of 920 euros for 2026 has already been approved in the State Budget (OE). Before the vote, the general secretary of UGT, Mário Mourão, had defended a value higher than this, although without specifying a concrete target. The Minister of Labor, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho, admitted that there could be room for a higher-than-expected increase, but stressed that this was not mandatory, given that there is a multi-year agreement that establishes increases of 50 euros per yearremember .

The Government, however, intends to go further in the medium term. The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, said on Friday that labor reform is an opportunity to significantly increase wages in Portugal, noting that the minimum wage could evolve from the current ones 920 euros for 1500 eurosand the average salary from the current 1500 to amounts between 2000 and 2500 euros. However, no concrete deadlines were presented for achieving these objectives.

In response, José Luís Carneiro accused Montenegro of being “” to the workers by talking about increasing the minimum wage to 1500 euros, in an attempt to empty the content of the general strike scheduled for the 11th. However, Montenegro took the opportunity to up the ante this Saturday, stipulating salary objectives of 1600 euros minimum wage and 3000 euros averageone day after mentioning lower values.

In the Social Concertation agreement it is defined that the SMN should reach 1020 euros in 2028. In the Government’s program, the target set is 1100 euros in 2029a more ambitious figure but still far from the horizon outlined by the prime minister.