Study Finds R$24.3 Billion Paid Above Constitutional Pay Cap in 2025
Concentrated extra payments have widened inequality and strained public finances; legal limits on indemnity-like allowances have been partially rolled back while reform proposals face heavy political and judicial pushback.
Overview
- A Carta do FGV Ibre study shows 67,300 public servants received R$24.3 billion above the 2025 constitutional pay cap, with 48,600 people taking 94% of that excess.
- The practice is widespread in top careers: at least 85.1% of judges, 89.1% of prosecutors and 52.8% of public attorneys exceeded the R$46,300 monthly cap used in 2025.
- The Supreme Court first limited indemnity-style allowances (known as “penduricalhos”) to 70% of the cap and later allowed some of those payments again, and the CNJ has sent an estimated R$1.1 billion in retroactive balances for 782 judges to the STF.
- Researcher Sérgio Guedes-Reis proposes reenacting the cap with phased rules that would convert excess pay into frozen personal advantages (VPNI), estimating long-term savings of R$167 billion to R$469 billion over 20 years under different scenarios.
- Tuesday’s disclosures deepen debate over fiscal impact and fairness by showing Brazil’s judiciary pay sits far above international peers and concentrate resources in a small elite, making political and legal resistance the main barrier to change.