Asked whether, in the exercise of the office of prime minister, he would not increase the national minimum wage on the initiative of the Government, Rui Rio clarified that this is not what it is about:

“If I am prime minister, there will be increases in the minimum wage that will take into account the increase tax and the gains from productivity. And then I understand that, on top of that, there must be a little more and this one a little more must be defined in Social Dialogue. Now what I I will not do and the growth of the national minimum wage by decree, above all that the economy can. Doing that, do you know what happens? The final result of the PS Governance happens”.

The PSD leader went on to support his statement:

“The median of dollars in Portugal is 90 euros. Half of the Portuguese earn less than 900 euros and half of the Portuguese earn more than 900 euros. It is the second worst median in Europe. Only Bulgaria is worse than us.”

Is it confirmed?

No. According to data from Eurostat, European Union Statistics Office, released in March 2021, raw reports2.vary considerably” between the different Member States of the European Union, from a maximum value of 4,057 euros in Denmark (2018 monthly median) up to a minimum value of 442 euros in Bulgaria (2018 monthly median).

In 2018, Portugal registered a median of 933 euros, The seventh lowest value among the 27 Member States of the European Union. Worse than in Portugal only in Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

the median is different of average, stand out. corresponds to one middle value, half of the workers earn less and another earn than the median value of the more halves, this is as explained by Rio.

At the top of the table, right after Denmark, are Luxembourg (3,671 euros), Sweden (3,135 euros), Belgium (3,092 euros), Ireland (3,021 euros), Finland (2,958 euros) and Germany (2,891 euros). euros) ), all with more than triple the median recorded in Portugal in the same time period.

In short, Portugal is not the country with the second worst median salary in the European Union, nor in the wider Europe. According to the latest available data (for 2018) from Eurostat, it has the seventh lowest median among the 27 EU Member States. We thus classify Rio’s claim as wrong.

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