Endividamento - Antonio Gaspar

Minimum wage versus Median wage - in Portugal

 

Portugal is in the 12th position among the 22 countries of the European Union that use the minimum wage by legislative means.

Although its value has increased every year (by 2020 it will be 635 Euros), it remains at a downright low level.

It should be borne in mind that few Portuguese receive the minimum wage - it is estimated to be 765,000. These Portuguese are citizens who, for the most part, have very low qualifications and work in sectors that are mostly labor intensive, with little productivity and that contribute little to the generation of national wealth (GDP).

Now, with the annual rise in the minimum wage, companies and the government seem to have forgotten the average wage and this is where a potential imbalance in remuneration lies in Portugal.

Companies need to look more at their workers.

Productivity gains must be carefully divided among shareholders, customers, the production process (investment) and the increase in salaries of its employees.

What has been happening since the 2008/2009 financial crisis is that companies have not made a balanced distribution of their earnings to all those who help create wealth. And this is where the danger of imbalance lies: the minimum wage is getting closer and closer to the average wage.

If an increase in the minimum wage is correct, it seems to me that the average wage should also grow and accompany the wealth creation and productivity gains of those companies they work for.

If there is no movement in this direction, Portugal will increasingly have its poorest workers and increasingly deviated from the median wage of the countries that make up the European Union.

It need to tackle this problem (because it is becoming a problem) head on.

Companies have to look at their workers differently and by means of performance and other criteria that allow them to gauge what each one adds to the production process, remunerate them with dignity, increasing their salary, which deservedly ends up making a difference measure of the most elemental justice.