The remuneration of any person holding a public position or job in Brazil cannot exceed the salary of ministers of the (Supreme Federal Court). This limit, called the constitutional ceiling, is provided for in article 37 and must be observed by both the Union and the states and municipalities, which can also implement subceilings.
It is not uncommon, however, for amounts paid to servers to exceed this limit. Some extras and benefits may go beyond what is permitted as they are considered compensation funds. These values above the ceiling are called hangers.
The topic is being discussed in the STF after injunctions from ministers and values not provided for by law for the entire public service. The court plenary analyzes the case, which must .
Predicted since 1988, with the promulgation of the Charter, the limit for public sector remuneration remained pending regulation until January 2004. With the approval of constitutional amendment 41 in December 2003, the country would enter the following year with a reference value for the constitutional ceiling: R$ 19.1 thousand per month, which corresponded to the salary of Minister Maurício Corrêa, then President of the Supreme Court.
The amount paid to members of the court was readjusted over the years at the initiative of Congress and, today, stands at R$46,300. The current amount was defined in January 2023. Before that, the last change took place in November 2018, when the ceiling was set at R$39.2 thousand.
The justification for the bill that defined the current value argued that the accumulated inflation since the 2018 correction until 2023 was 24.5%, according to data from IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). The then approved an adjustment of 18% that would be added to the ceiling value in installments.
Thus, the salary of STF ministers increased by 6% each year from 2023 onwards, totaling R$41,600 in April 2023, R$44,000 in February 2024 and R$46,300 in February 2025.
According to , the budget impact for the year 2023 was R$910.3 thousand in relation to the salaries of members of the STF and R$255.38 million in relation to other members of the Judiciary.
Entities that defend the payment of penduricalhos argue that salaries have been out of date for years.
The legislation that readjusted the constitutional ceiling over the years used the IPCA (Consumer Price Index) to define the new values. Some standards also mention “recovering your purchasing power” as a justification.
As in the 2023 adjustment, the accumulated variation of the IPCA in the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 (14.09%), for example, was increased throughout the years 2009 and 2010. These corrections, however, do not fully correspond to the accumulated inflation from January 2004 to January 2026.
According to the Central Bank, the percentage value of price variation in this period was 233.1%. Based on these values, the amount defined after the approval of constitutional amendment 41/2003 (R$ 19.1 thousand) would total R$ 63.6 thousand today.
Following this criterion, the salary of STF ministers and, consequently, the constitutional ceiling would be around 37% higher in relation to the current value, which is R$46.3 thousand.
