Controlling these could lead to savings of R$186.4 billion in ten years in Brazil. This is what research led by , a federal employee and doctoral student at UCSD (University of California, San Diego), and commissioned by the institute .
The adjustments suggested are based on data on career salaries in the Justice systems in 11 countries: Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, United States, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and the United Kingdom. In addition to the judiciary, funds paid to members of bodies equivalent to , the Public Defender’s Office and public law were considered.
The simulations consider three scenarios, with or without, to estimate the impact of changes over 20 years. There are projections for a total freeze on salaries, the incidence of new rules only for those entering careers and the adoption of (Nominally Identified Personal Advantage) to qualify funds that exceed a new ceiling.
A turnover (replacement of employees over time) of 4% per year, an inflation rate of 4% per year for monetary correction, the maintenance of the number of employees and the structuring of a new remuneration pyramid, which divides the difference between the minimum and maximum salaries into five equidistant bands, prioritizing a larger base, are considered.
Immediate application would, in theory, represent the maximum budget savings, saving R$186.4 billion in ten years. In 20 years, the amount saved would reach R$578.3 billion.
If the readjustment became valid only for new employees, the savings would be R$97.8 billion in one decade and R$330.3 billion in two decades. Considering the VPNI, which includes current servers, the amount saved could reach R$169.4 billion in ten years and R$520.8 billion in 20 years.
In order to correct possible exchange rate distortions in the comparison between countries on which the proposed new remuneration standard was based, the research uses different metrics to contextualize the data. The first of them adopts the unit of measurement in PPP dollars (from the acronym, purchasing power parity, in English).
Comparisons are also made based on multiples of median income and minimum wage.
The constitutional ceiling for public remuneration in Brazil is the salary of ministers of the (Supreme Federal Court) and currently corresponds to R$46.3 thousand. It was established in 2004. Based on the IPCA, this value .
It is not uncommon, however, for servers to be paid above the ceiling. Certain amounts paid to magistrates, prosecutors, defenders and public lawyers may have their compensatory nature recognized and, therefore, are above the constitutional limit: these are called penduricalhos.
In the other countries studied by the research, there are different rules that limit salaries in the public sector.
Mexico has a general ceiling. Colombia and Italy have specific ceilings for powers and entities. In the US, limits are established based on server groups. In Chile, they take into account political elites and, in Argentina, certain public leaders.
Germany and Portugal, in turn, adopt structured tables that establish salary limits. Finally, in the United Kingdom, there are commissions that assess when these amounts should exceed the Prime Minister’s salary.
The STF (Supreme Federal Court) has been promoting an offensive against super salaries in the three Powers since last month. In February, the minister suspended the payment of compensation funds, establishing that only the penduricalhos expressly provided for by law may be outside the ceiling of the respective careers.
Weeks later, the minister determined that compensation funds in the Judiciary and the Public Ministry could only be paid when they were expressly provided for in a law approved by Congress. The decision blocked most of the penduricalhos, which are usually determined by administrative action and state law. The court plenary will still discuss the issue.
