Workers earning the national minimum wage will lose purchasing power for the first time in nine years. According to the newspaper Público, although in 2023 there is an increase of 6.4% that the Government has promised and that inflation remains at 5.1%, as forecast by the Council of Public Finances, the growth trend registered in the last years.
In the troika years, when the minimum wage was frozen at 485 euros, workers felt a loss of purchasing power from 2011 to 2013, but this trend was reversed with the increase in the minimum wage in the following years.
The increases, which on average stood at 4.8%, allowed minimum wage holders to increase their purchasing power by around 3%, also taking into account the low inflation rates of recent years —which are now being countering due to the war in Ukraine.
Given the current scenario, the growth in purchasing power registered by workers with the national minimum wage will be interrupted, which has not happened since 2013. The accounts of the newspaper Público reveal that, with the data known so far from the inflation forecasts of the Government and the Public Finance Council, the loss should be between 1.4% and 1.7%.
Source: Observadora
