Economic Crisis Widens Wage Gap between Public and Private Sectors in Brazil

02/01/2017 - 14h46

The wage gap between workers in the public and the private sectors grew by 7.6% last year in Brazil.

It was the highest increase since 2012, the beginning of the historical series of the Continuous National Household Sample Survey, made by IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, in its Portuguese acronym).

While in 2015 civil servants earned on average R$ 3,152 (US$ 1.001) -59.3% more than an employee with a formal contract-, in 2016 this difference reached 63.8%.

The salary of a public servant grew by 1.5% in the period, while that of a private sector worker shrank by 1.3%.

One of the reasons is the strategy, amplified in times of recession, to replace part of the working team with employees who earn less.

According to an analysis of data of the Ministry of Labor made by Folha, new employees with a formal contract are paid, on average, 21% less than workers that had the same occupation before being fired.

The country's unemployment rate reached 12% in the last four months of 201 - about 12.3 million people.

In the last two years, employers, including those working in their own business, had the largest pay loss (6.1%).

Translated by MARINA DELLA VALLE

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