The Senate approved on August 24 the provisional minimum wage arrangement. The speaker Jaques Wagner, leader of the Government in that legislative body, maintained the text previously accepted in the Chamber of Deputies.

The temporary order sets the value of the new pay at 1,320 reais (about US$ 272), effective as of May 1.

The change means an increase of 2.8 percent over the amount set in the administration of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

A provisional measure has immediate force of law when signed by the country’s president, but needs to be approved by Congress in up to 120 days so as not to lose its validity.

During the session, congressmen criticized the tight deadline for its approval, which would expire this August 28, and defended the Senate’s rigidity by requesting that it be analyzed more quickly.

Merlong Solano, the speaker, included in the content the permanent valuation of the minimum wage, in the molds of the model adopted between 2007 and 2019.

Such calculation includes, in addition to the accumulated inflation of the previous year, the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), ensuring that annually there is a real valuation of the minimum.

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