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The national salary floor for public basic education teachers will be R$ 5,130.63 in 2026. The value was made official through a Provisional Measure (MP) signed by the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday (21).
The adjustment represents an increase in 5.4% compared to 2025equivalent to R$ 262,86raising the current floor of R$4,867.77 to the new value. The percentage is 1.5 percentage points above last year’s accumulated inflationmeasured by INPC, which was 3.9%.
The decision was taken after previous rules indicated that the adjustment for 2026 would be only 0,37%which would result in a symbolic increase of around R$ 18one of the smallest ever recorded for the category. To avoid this scenario, the Minister of Education, Camilo Santanahad anticipated that the federal government was preparing an MP to review the calculation criteria.
Teacher in the classroom — Photo: Pexels/Illustrative image
The national floor is applied to teachers who work in basic education in the public network with a working day 40 hours per week. For different workloads, the value is proportional. States and municipalities can also pay salaries higher than the minimum wage, as the amount defined by the federal government represents the mandatory minimum.
Change in readjustment criteria
The Provisional Measure establishes new rules for calculating the teaching minimum. From now on, the annual adjustment will be defined by the sum of two factors:
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the previous year’s inflation, measured by the INPC;
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e 50% of the average of the actual revenue variation contributions from states, the Federal District and municipalities to the Fundebcalculated in the previous five years.
The text also determines that the adjustment can never be lower than the previous year’s inflationguaranteeing real gain or, at least, inflationary replacement.
According to the Ministry of Educationthe change seeks to adapt the Floor Law to the changes introduced by the constitutional amendment that established the new Fundeb.
The MP has immediate effectand the new value will come into effect in the next teachers’ payment. The text now moves on to analysis of the National Congresswhich has up to 120 days to approve it and make it definitive.
How the previous criterion worked
Until then, the floor readjustment was defined based on the Teaching Floor Law of 2008which used criteria linked to the old Fundeb law. The increase followed the same percentage of growth as the Annual Value per Student (VAAF).
For 2026, the VAAF would increase by only 0,37%which would lead to an adjustment of approximately R$ 18,10 in teachers’ salaries, below inflation and without real gain.
Category celebrates readjustment
A National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE) classified the 5.4% increase as a “victory for the category” and a concrete advance in the policy of valuing public education.
The president of the entity, Fatima Silvastated that, despite the achievement, there are still structural challenges in the teaching career. Data from OECD show that Brazil remains among the countries that pay worst teachers, although the new minimum wage represents an important advance.
City halls warn of financial impacts
A National Front of Mayors and Mayors (FNP) stated that they support the valorization of teaching, but highlighted concerns about the financial impacts of the new rule, especially in municipalities with less revenue capacity.
In a note, the entity highlighted that the effects of the adjustment are not distributed equally among the federative entities and that structurally underfunded municipalities may face difficulties in absorbing the increase in mandatory expenses. The FNP reinforced its request for the Union to supplement resources for municipalities with lower revenue per inhabitant.
Source: Ministry of Education / CNTE / FNP
✍️ Written by ContilNet
