Government Trims 2026 Minimum-Wage Projection to R$1,627

Overview

• Documents sent by the Planning Ministry to Congress lowered the 2026 estimate from R$1,631 to R$1,627 to guide the budget process.
• If confirmed, the projected floor implies a 7.18% increase over the current R$1,518 minimum.
• The adjustment follows the legal formula that uses INPC through November plus GDP growth from two years earlier, with any real gain capped at up to 2.5% by the fiscal framework.
• The minimum wage benchmarks federal benefits such as INSS pensions, BPC, unemployment insurance and the wage bonus, and the ministry did not request immediate cuts to these outlays, leaving any revisions to Congress.
• The definitive value will be set after IBGE publishes November’s INPC on December 10, and the government also trimmed projections to R$1,721 in 2027, R$1,819 in 2028 and R$1,903 in 2029.