Bolsonaro signs measure that raises minimum wage to R$ 1,302 from January 1, 2023

Three weeks before the end of his term, President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) signed this Monday (12) an MP (Provisional Measure) to raise the minimum wage to R$1,302 as of January 1, 2023.

The expansion of the national floor represents a 7.4% readjustment in relation to the current R$ 1,212. The value was already foreseen in the Budget proposal sent in August to the National Congress.

At the time of submission of the proposal, the percentage of 7.4% represented the expected inflation for this year – that is, Bolsonaro did not initially foresee any real gain for the minimum wage.

Since then, however, prices have slowed down. According to the government, the INPC (National Consumer Price Index) should end the year at 5.81%, and the real gain would then be “around 1.5%”. It will be the first readjustment above inflation since 2019.

The minimum value for the daily shift will be R$ 43.40 with the readjustment. The floor per hour worked will change to R$ 5.92.

The MP was published in an extra edition of the Official Gazette on the same day that the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), will be certified by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) after beating Bolsonaro at the polls.

Technicians heard by the report claim that the current Chief Executive is “anticipating” some measures. Last year, the MP with the 2022 minimum wage was published on December 31.

In the last transition of government, then President Michel Temer (MDB) left it to Bolsonaro to sign, as one of his first acts in the Presidency, the decree that raised the minimum wage. At the time, the policy approved by the Dilma Rousseff (PT) government was still in force, which granted readjustment for inflation plus GDP growth (Gross Domestic Product) two years earlier.

Lula’s team wants to resume a policy of valuing the minimum wage and, therefore, has been talking about an even higher amount, of R$ 1,320 starting next year, as shown by the Sheet🇧🇷 If this continues, Lula would need to edit a new MP at the beginning of his term to adjust the value.

An additional amount of BRL 6.8 billion should be reserved in the 2023 Budget, from the extra space opened by the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Transition, to contemplate this new increase in the national base sought by Lula.

The value of the minimum wage was a point of contention between the two during the campaign. Lula’s team criticized the current president, who only granted real gains to the minimum wage in his first year in office, 2019, under the rule approved in the Dilma government.

The PT campaign also included in its list of promises the resumption of the policy of valuing the minimum wage.

Bolsonaro’s team, on the other hand, found itself under pressure after the Sheet reveal the plans of Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) to make the correction of the minimum wage more flexible and allow its readjustment to stay below inflation.

Guedes initially admitted the plans to unmark and de-index the Budget, obtaining greater freedom in managing expenses, but claimed that this sought to guarantee real increases in the minimum wage – although today there are no legal impediments to granting increases above inflation (only the budget limitation ).

“If you’re talking about de-indexing, it’s much more thinking about whether inflation really stops and we want to give a real increase”, said the minister at the time.

This Monday, the Bolsonaro government itself boasts the granting of a real increase in the minimum wage without any initiative to de-index the Budget.

After the negative repercussions, the current president even promised a minimum wage of R$1,400 in the last presidential debate, promoted by TV Globo. The measure would have a cost of R$ 42 billion.