The minimum wage is a right achieved in a bill created during the government of Getúlio Vargas in 1940. It attempts to regulate the minimum that a person should earn in Brazil.
We are talking about a minimum wage and not a standard salary as many have earned; it was created precisely to correct the injustices of social inequality that have existed in Brazil since the Portuguese colony.
This minimum wage is readjusted annually. This readjustment varies from year to year and is not a fixed percentage, as it also takes into account the inflation of the previous year of the new period.
Minimum wage in 2023.
Recently, the federal government made a forecast for the current value of the minimum wage, thus projecting what the new value will be for 2023, next year. However, it is very important to say that the expectation is to receive an additional R$$80.00 (Eighty Reais).
Therefore, the new value with the adjustment will be R$1,212.00 for R$1,292.00 (One thousand, two hundred and ninety-two reais). It is worth mentioning that the forecast for the expected value for 2023 was R$1,302, but the spending ceiling had to be considered in light of the new adjustment.
The index that the federal government considers for the readjustment is the INPC (National Institute of Consumer Prices), which is nothing more than a price gauge in the practice of inflation, that old practice “how much inflation is hurting my pocket”
Rate is important
The INPC rate for the last 12 months accumulated was 7.41%, one of the highest in recent years, however, given the inflation the world is experiencing, it is still an acceptable percentage.
Even considering the INPC, real inflation and in practice, the readjustment of the minimum wage for 2023 is not a mathematically real readjustment value in view of inflation, today, the real readjustment would raise the minimum wage to approximately R$1,400.00, but it is worth remembering that the budget law, which establishes a spending ceiling approved in the Senate a year earlier, cannot be exceeded, running the risk of the executive suffering the maximum punishment for administrative impropriety.
The spending cap law is recent, it was approved during the government of Michel Temer, if on the one hand, it is strict and necessary for politicians not to spend whatever they want, since everything has to be budgeted, on the other hand, the minimum wage has been the most affected, since it is not enough to consider inflation for the real increase in wages, but it cannot exceed the spending cap, since retirement is related to the readjustment of the minimum wage.
And you, what do you think of this new adjustment?