Brasilia, January 19th – The President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has stated that the ministries should develop proposals for the introduction of a minimum wage adjustment policy and its control and monitoring instruments.
During a meeting with union leaders at the Planalto Palace, the seat of the executive branch in Brasilia, Lula pointed out that the proposals must be presented within 45 days, renewable once for the same period.
From 2020, the national minimum wage will only be adjusted for inflation, with no permanent regulation.
Raising the minimum in real terms (via inflation) is a campaign promise by the ruler and one of the priorities of the new government.
Such proposals must be prepared by the Departments of Labor and Employment, Finance, Planning and Budget, Social Welfare, Industrial Development and Trade, the General Secretariat and the Civil House of the Presidency.
Currently, the minimum wage is 1,302 reais ($255), a level proposed by the government of defeated President Jair Bolsonaro late last year.
The union headquarters advocate improving the value by at least a 15 percent correction, which happens on a thousand 342 reais ($263).
Economic analysts say the government is considering harnessing part of the economy with the spending cuts included in the package of measures unveiled last week by Treasury Secretary Fernando Haddad to readjust the minimum.
The so-called minimum wage assessment policy, defended by union headquarters and introduced in Lula’s first government (2003-2007), had been destroyed by Bolsonaro, workers denounced.
Since his first year in office in 2019, the ex-soldier has never adjusted the minimum above the inflation rate.
In the Labor Party governments (Lula and Dilma Rousseff, from 2003 to 2016), the minimum wage rose 77 percent above inflation. Workers are currently faced with lost wages.
(RCA)
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