Economy

More workers managed to rise above inflation in January

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The conditions for salary readjustment negotiations in January this year were a little better than those recorded in previous months. The proportion of agreements closed with rates lower than the variation of inflation, however, is still high – at 38.8% of the total.

According to the Salariómetro survey, carried out by Fipe (Fundação Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas), the median readjustment last month was 10.20% and tied with the INPC (National Consumer Price Index), the most used index in salary negotiations, and which closed 2021 at 10.16%.

In the last 12 months, the median readjustment was five times below the INPC and tied with the index in another seven times. When it remains the same, the worker guarantees the replacement of what, in the period of one year, the purchasing power of his salary has lost, eroded by price increases.

When it falls below, however, it is as if income has shrunk, since even the deterioration in purchasing power is not compensated.

In January, 33.4% of the concluded negotiations gave rises above inflation to workers, guaranteeing real gains in wages. This slice was no more than 30% of negotiations for at least a year.

Despite the improvement, Fipe predicts that negotiations in 2022 will still be difficult for workers, especially since inflation will remain high during the first half, while economic activity continues to slip, making it difficult for companies to absorb costs. of these readjustments.

The Salariometer is based on collective bargaining data registered with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security. According to the survey, the average floor in January was R$ 1,388.

An analysis by Dieese (Inter-Union Department of Socioeconomic Studies) on the same data shows that the staggering and installment of readjustments were still used in the negotiations closed in the first month of the year.

In the case of payment in installments, only 3.7% of the agreements had this type of forecast. In December, 21.9% of the negotiations foresaw the application of the increase in stages, and 28.8%, in November.

Escalation, which became more frequently adopted from the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, was still used in 18.2% of salary negotiations closed in January. In the same period in 2021, staggered payment was used 11.9% times.

This device appeared in 44.4% of readjustment agreements in November last year. In this model, the increases are applied only to salaries of up to a certain amount, or the different salary ranges receive different readjustments.

By economic sector, Dieese’s analysis shows that the industry has the highest percentage of negotiations with above increases in inflation in January.

Of the total of agreements closed, 44.6% gave real gain to workers. In commerce, this percentage was 25%, and in the services sector, 32.3%.

The region of the country with the most negotiations with a real increase was the South, with 42.3% of the agreements, followed by the Southeast, with 41.5%.

At the other end, workers in the North of Brazil were the ones who had the most increase percentages below the INPC from January to December 2021. In this region, 68.2% of the agreements were below inflation. In the Midwest, 66.7% of the readjustments were lower than the INPC.

According to Dieese, of the categories with negotiations closed in January, the best average salary was in the transport sector, at R$1,480.44, followed by security and surveillance, at R$1,474.46, and construction and furniture, at R$1,396. .72.

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