Brazil salário mínimo 2026: R$ 1.621,00 and the floors that can sit above it
The national floor rose to R$ 1.621,00 a month in January 2026. For many roles the figure that binds is a state or sector floor, so the national number is only the starting point.
Brazil’s statutory floor in four numbers
From January 2026 no CLT employee in Brazil may earn less than R$ 1.621,00 a month for a full-time schedule, with daily and hourly equivalents of R$ 54,04 and R$ 7,37. A state floor or a collective agreement can set a higher minimum for a given job, so check those before fixing a salary.
How much is the salário mínimo in 2026?
The national salário mínimo (minimum wage) is R$ 1.621,00 a month from 1 January 2026, set by Decreto nº 12.797 of 23 December 2025. The same decree fixes the daily figure at R$ 54,04 and the hourly figure at R$ 7,37.
The amount is set by presidential decree each year and applies nationwide as the lowest monthly pay for a CLT employee on a full-time schedule. The decree can be read on the Planalto site, the federal government’s official record of statutes and decrees.
The new amount took effect on the first day of January, so any employee whose salary sat at the 2025 floor had to be moved up on the January 2026 payroll. Employers do not need a new contract to do this; the payslip simply reflects the higher figure, and the eSocial remuneration event carries it through to contributions and FGTS.
The decree is a floor on pay for the job, and payments such as the 13º and the férias bonus are calculated from it at the lowest level. An employer can pay more, and most do for skilled roles, but no contract term or employee agreement can bring the monthly salary for a full-time schedule under it.
Amounts in this article use Brazilian notation: a full stop separates thousands and a comma marks the centavos, so R$ 1.621,00 means one thousand six hundred and twenty-one reais. Percentages are written with a decimal point.
How does the monthly minimum relate to working hours?
The monthly figure is the floor for a full-time CLT schedule, which the Constitution and CLT art. 58 limit to an 8-hour day and a 44-hour week. The daily and hourly amounts in the decree are the reference points when a contract is built on days or hours instead of a monthly salary.
CLT art. 59 limits overtime to two hours in any day. When a role is paid close to the floor, keep a record of hours worked, because pay for a month with unpaid absences or extra hours is checked against the daily and hourly figures as well as the monthly one.
A proposal to cut the standard week to 40 hours without any reduction in pay, PEC 221/2019, passed the Câmara dos Deputados on 27 May 2026 and cleared the Senate’s constitution committee on 2 September 2026. It was not law on 25 September 2026. If it passes, a monthly salary would buy fewer hours, and the hourly value of the minimum would rise even with the monthly amount unchanged.
Does São Paulo set a higher minimum than the national one?
Yes, São Paulo state has its own regional minimum, the piso salarial estadual, which sits above the national figure for the categories it covers. A new 2026 amount was approved by the state legislature in May 2026, but we have not seen the statute text on an official page, so we do not quote the figure here.
Before setting pay for a São Paulo hire, check the current regional floor with the Assembleia Legislativa do Estado de São Paulo or the state government, and ask the employing company how it interacts with any collective agreement that covers the role.
For most professional hires the regional floor is academic, because salaries are far higher. It matters for support, administrative and entry-level roles, where a budget built on the national R$ 1.621,00 could fall short of the rate that actually applies in the state.
A sensible approach for a São Paulo hire near the bottom of the pay scale is to take the higher of the national minimum and the confirmed state figure, then compare that with the CCT floor for the job title. The highest of the three becomes the salary you cannot go below.
How do collective agreements set sector pay floors?
A convenção coletiva de trabalho (CCT) is a sector-wide agreement negotiated between employers’ and workers’ unions for a territory, and these agreements commonly fix a piso salarial (sector wage floor) for each job category, which can be higher than the statutory minimum. A single company can sign its own acordo coletivo (ACT) with the union as well.
Where CLT art. 611-A allows it, a negotiated term takes priority over the statutory rule, the principle known as negociado sobre o legislado. In practice they set far more than the floor, and the extras land in the payroll budget.
- The annual pay rise on the category’s data-base (the anniversary date of the agreement).
- Meal or food vouchers, which the law does not require but many agreements do.
- Profit sharing (PLR) and health plans.
Which agreement covers a particular hire depends on the employer’s category and the place of work, so it has to be confirmed for each role. Through an EOR, ask the employer of record which CCT it will apply, what floor that CCT sets for the job title and when the next data-base increase falls, before you sign off the offer.
Meal and food vouchers deserve a line of their own in the budget. They are voluntary under the Programa de Alimentação do Trabalhador (PAT) unless an agreement requires them, and Decreto nº 12.712 of November 2025 reformed the programme, capping the fees card issuers may charge merchants at 3.6% and banning the rebates that issuers used to offer employers.
What does a minimum-wage employee cost and take home?
At R$ 1.621,00 a month, the employee pays R$ 121,58 of INSS and no income tax, taking home R$ 1.499,42 in an ordinary month. On top, the employer pays roughly R$ 580,32 of charges for that month.
The employee figure uses the first 2026 INSS band, 7.5%, which ends exactly at R$ 1.621,00. Income tax does not arise, because the 2026 IRRF table exempts monthly income up to R$ 2.428,80 and the Lei 15.270/2025 reduction removes tax on taxable income up to R$ 5.000,00 in any case. If the worker has children under 14, salário-família of R$ 67,54 per child is added to pay, since the salary is below the R$ 1.980,38 threshold.
The employer figure assumes lucro real or presumido taxation, FPAS 515 and a neutral FAP, so the four rates (20% for INSS patronal, 2% for RAT, 5.8% for terceiros, 8% for FGTS) add up to 35.8%. Across a year the employer also pays the 13º salário of R$ 1.621,00 and a holiday bonus of one third, R$ 540,33, so annual gross pay reaches R$ 21.613,33 and the annual cost with charges comes to about R$ 29.350,90, before vouchers, CCT benefits or an EOR fee.
Line by line, R$ 324,20 of the monthly charges goes to INSS patronal, R$ 32,42 to RAT, R$ 94,02 to the terceiros levies and R$ 129,68 into FGTS. The FGTS amount is deposited into the employee’s own account and does not reduce the take-home figure.
The holiday month looks different on the payslip. Salary of R$ 1.621,00 plus the one-third bonus of R$ 540,33 gives R$ 2.161,33, which crosses into the 9% INSS band, so the employee contributes R$ 170,20 that month and receives R$ 1.991,13 net. Even with the bonus, income stays below the R$ 2.428,80 exemption, so no IRRF is withheld.
If the employee asks for vale-transporte, the deduction is capped at 6% of basic salary, R$ 97,26 at the minimum, and the employer pays any fare cost above that.
Why does the minimum still matter when you pay far above it?
The minimum wage is the anchor for several thresholds, so its annual change moves figures well beyond the lowest salaries. The first INSS contribution band ends at exactly the minimum, and benefit thresholds such as salário-família sit close to it.
Income tax thresholds have moved away from the minimum in 2026. With the Lei 15.270/2025 reduction, taxable monthly income up to R$ 5.000,00 now carries no IRRF, which is a little over three times the national floor. For a salary between the minimum and that level, the employee’s only statutory deduction is usually INSS, which makes net pay easier to predict when you compare offers.
The annual decree also feeds into the rest of the pay structure indirectly. INSS bands and the salário-família threshold are updated at the start of each year, CCT floors are renegotiated on each category’s data-base, and an offer made in December can need a fresh check in January.
For budget purposes, the gap between the floor and a typical professional salary is wide. The worked example on this site uses R$ 15.000,00 a month in São Paulo, more than nine times the national minimum, and reaches an annual employer cost of R$ 271.600,00. That calculation is set out in our full São Paulo costing, and the monthly mechanics of withholding and filing are in our article on Brazilian payroll, eSocial and FGTS.
How should you check pay floors before making an offer?
Work from the highest applicable floor downwards: the CCT piso for the role, then any state floor, then the national R$ 1.621,00. The highest one that applies is the real minimum for that hire.
- Confirm the job title and place of work, since both decide which collective agreement is relevant.
- Ask for the current CCT floor and the date of the next data-base increase.
- Check the São Paulo regional floor with an official state source if the job is located in the state.
- Add the benefits the CCT makes compulsory, such as meal vouchers, to the cost model.
- Budget on thirteen and a third salaries, since the 13º salário and the férias bonus apply at every pay level.
Plan for the floor to move. The national figure is reset by decree for each January, and CCT floors change on each category’s data-base, so a salary chosen close to a floor today may need an adjustment within the year. Leaving a margin above the highest floor avoids an unplanned mid-year increase.
With Employer of Record Brazil, the offer comes from us as the legal employer under the CLT, and we apply the collective agreement that covers the role. You set the salary and approve the package; our payroll team applies the floors and the annual adjustments. Our pricing page shows how salary, charges and the starting monthly fee, from USD 560, appear on the invoice.
Frequently asked
Q01How much is the Brazilian minimum wage this year?
Q02Is the São Paulo minimum wage higher than the national one?
Q03Does a minimum-wage employee pay income tax in Brazil?
Q04What is a piso salarial?
Q05Do the 13º salário and férias bonus apply at the minimum wage?
Set a salary that clears every Brazilian floor
Send us the role and the city and we will come back with the collective agreement we apply, its current floor and a full annual cost.