Portugal: Salaries and meal allowance increase for civil servants
Portugal Labor and Employment Alert
Decree-Law no. 280/2022, of 16 December, was published in the Official Gazette, introducing salary increases for civil servants.
Besides salary increases, directly applicable to civil servants and employees of other entities within the public perimeter, the abovementioned decree-law also introduced an increase in the amount of the meal allowance applicable to these employees, which may have an impact in terms of Social Security for all employees in Portugal receiving a meal allowance.
1. Salary increases
Salary wise, from 1 January 2023, onwards:
- The civil servants’ base salary is updated to € 761.00;
This amount corresponds to the minimum salary practiced in public administration, which now covers the first 5 salary levels of the Single Remuneration Table (Tabela Remuneratória Única – TRU); - Salary levels 6, 7 and 8 of the TRU are increased to € 809.13, € 861.23 and € 899.77, respectively;
- Salary levels 9 to 41, inclusive, of the TRU are increased to the value of the next salary level, considering the amounts that resulted from the TRU update carried out in 2021 (by the Decree-Law 109-A/2021, of 7 December);
- Salary levels 42 and above of the TRU are increased by 2%.
The updated TRU, with the new applicable amounts for each salary level, is attached as Annex I of the abovementioned Decree-Law 84-F/2022, of 16 December.
These salary increases are also applicable, with the necessary adjustments, to employees working in companies within the public companies’ perimeter, provided that they are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement in force.
The amounts of the salary levels related to the salary positions of the following categories of civil servants’ general careers are also updated:
- Técnico Superior (Técnico Superior career);
- Assistente Técnico (Assistente Técnico career);
- Coordenador Técnico (Coordenador Técnico career);
- Encarregado geral operacional (Assistente Operacional career);
- Assistente operacional (Assistente Operacional career).
The TRU salary levels related to the salary positions of these categories are set out in annexes II, III and IV of Decree-Law 84-F/2022, of 16 December.
2. Meal allowance increase
The meal allowance amount for civil servants is increased from € 4.77 to € 5.20, with retroactive effects from 1 October 2022, onwards.
This increase may directly impact Social Security contributions on meals, food or other similar allowances paid by employers to all employees in Portugal.
In fact, with the increase of this amount, the exemption limit in terms of Social Security contributions applicable to the payment of these amounts to employees also increases, on the following terms:
Contacts
