The average wage per worker will decrease by 4.0% in real terms in 2022.

The average monthly gross salary per Portuguese worker increased by 3.6% in nominal terms, but decreased by 4.0% in real terms in 2022 compared to 2021, to 1,411 euros, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) said today.

In 2021, total remuneration increased in both terms: by 3.5% in nominal terms and by 2.2% in real terms.

Last year, the regular gross monthly wage, which excludes holiday and Christmas subsidies and is therefore less seasonal, was €1,140, ​​registering a nominal increase of 3.1% and a real decrease of 4.4% (in 2021 it increased by 3.1% and 1.8%, unadjusted and adjusted for inflation, respectively).

Also in 2022, the gross base monthly wage was €1,070 and registered a nominal increase of 3.0% and a real decrease of 4.5% (in 2021 it increased by 3.0% and 1.7% in nominal and real terms). expression, respectively).

It should be noted that in 2022, the consumer price index (CPI) had a positive trend of 7.8% and amounted to 1.3% in 2021.

According to INE, last year the total remuneration ranged from 3,151 euros in the activities “electricity, gas, steam, hot and cold water and cold air” and 885 euros in the activities “agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, forestry and fishing”.

Compared to 2021, the largest relative growth occurred in the field of consulting, scientific, technical and similar activities, and the smallest in the field of “Public administration and defense activities; Compulsory social insurance.

In real terms, the total amount of remuneration decreased for all types of activities from 0.9% to 6.7%.

In 2022, total remuneration ranged from €941 in companies with one to four employees and €1,706 in companies with 250 to 499 employees.

INE notes that “these company size scales were also the ones that saw the highest (6.3%) and lowest (1.1%) annual growth, respectively.”

In real terms, total remuneration has declined regardless of the scale considered, from 1.5% in small companies (one to four employees) to 6.3% in companies with 250-499 employees.

In 2022, the total remuneration of civil servants (GS) increased by 2.0%, from EUR 1,914 in 2021 to EUR 1,951 a year later, an increase higher than the previous year (0.8%) but lower than . observed in the private sector of the economy (4.6%; from 1245 to 1302 euros).

However, taking into account the impact of inflation, in real terms total AP remuneration decreased by 5.6% between 2021 and 2022, decreasing by 0.5% between 2020 and 2021.

In the private sector, the real annual decline was “less mitigated” (3.1%) after registering a real growth of 3.0% in 2021.

Analyzing only the last quarter of 2022, it turns out that the total average monthly gross salary per employee (per job) increased by 4.2% compared to the same period in 2021 and amounted to 1575 euros.

The regular part and the base part of this remuneration increased by 4.3% and 4.4%, amounting to €1,150 and €1,080 respectively.

However, in real terms, based on the change in the CPI, the total average monthly gross wages decreased by 5.2%, the regular part decreased by 5.1%, and the base part decreased by 5.0%.

These results cover 4.5 million jobs, according to INE, which is in line with social security recipients and subscribers of Caixa Geral de Aposentação, up 4.8% from the same period in 2021.

In relation to December 2021, the largest increase in total wages was observed in the field of “accommodation, catering, etc.”, in companies with the number of employees from one to four (6.1%), in the private sector (5.4% ) and in high-income companies. technological services with high science intensity” (6.9%).

“Negative fluctuations in the total wages were not observed, while the smallest fluctuations compared to last year were observed in the activities of “public administration and defense; compulsory social insurance” in companies with 250 to 499 employees (1.1%), in the General Government Sector (2.0%) and in companies “of other services with high knowledge intensity” (2.5%)”, clarifies INE.

An analysis of remuneration by institutional sector shows that in AP in the fourth quarter, total remuneration increased by 2.0% year on year, which reached 2,198 euros (2,154 euros in December 2021). During this period, the regular part increased by 2.1%, from 1564 euros to 1597 euros, and the base remuneration increased by 2.2%, from 1474 euros to 1507 euros.

In real terms, in the AP, the total, regular and basic remuneration decreased by 7.2%, 7.1% and 7.0%, respectively.

According to INE, in the private sector, “remuneration grew more significantly” in the last quarter of last year: total remuneration for the year changed by 5.4%, from 1,378 euros in December 2021 to 1,452 euros a year later.

The regular part also increased by 5.4%, increasing from 1007 to 1062 euros, while the base remuneration increased by 5.5%, from 943 to 995 euros.

Taking inflation into account, the institute notes that “the year-over-year decrease in three types of remuneration was less pronounced in the private sector than in the public sector: 4.1% in general and regular remuneration and 4.0% in base remuneration.”