An inflation rate of 7.8%, recorded in 2022, created a real gap in the salaries of civil servants and private sector employees. Calculations performed by Dinheiro Vivo based on statistics on monthly gross wages, published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), show that workers have lost a total of about three billion euros due to the impact of the continued price increases.
Last year, the average gross monthly salary of more than 4.4 million employees was 1411 euros, representing a real loss of 4% due to the impact of inflation, according to data from INE. In real terms, for example, there was a reduction in the wage bill of the Portuguese economy of about three billion euros, which amounts to an annual loss of €676 for each worker.
When we analyze the effects of price changes on gross wages in the public and private sectors, it appears that state workers were punished more. Although they earned a higher monthly gross wage on average, namely 1951 euros, the actual loss was also greater, namely 5.6%. After all, the more than 742,000 civil servants suffered a global loss of 968 million euros, which equates to an annual wage cut of 1,304 euros on average.
In the perimeter of private sector companies, the average gross monthly salary in 2022 was 1302 euros, 642 euros less compared to the values used in public administration. But the shock caused by inflation was also smaller. The more than 3.6 million workers received a wage cut of 3.1%, which amounts to an annual global reduction of 1.7 billion euros and 484 euros per employee.
In cumulative terms, the Portuguese lost €9.5 billion over the past eight years, representing a 12.6% reduction in the wage bill, according to the INE statistical series deflating wages in January 2014, when inflation was zero. Taking into account the global fines imposed in Portugal since the last year of the troika, the cuts in the state amounted to more than 2.2 billion euros: the difference between the nominal average monthly gross salary (1951 euros) and the real value ( 1703 euros) is 248 euros which, multiplied by 12 months, as this compensation already includes holiday and Christmas allowances, results in an overall loss per employee of 2976 euros. If we count all 742,400 civil servants who will be there in 2022, we arrive at a wage drop of more than 2.2 billion euros.
In the private sector, and because the universe of workers is much larger, over 3.6 million, the impact is greater. All told, inflation took more than $7.3 billion off wages. In the comparison between the verified average gross salary, of 1302 euros, and the real one, of 1137 euros, there is a decrease of 165 euros per month. The global loss per employee amounted to 1980 euros.
Salomé Pinto is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
