Work portrait on May 1st. Portugal is the fifth country in the Union with the lowest average salary

In 2022, the average annual salary per worker in Portugal was the tenth lowest of EU countries. Below Portugal are the Eastern countries, Croatia and Greece.

According to Pordata, in the European Union salaries in the top ten countries are at least twice as high as those in the bottom ten countries, where Portugal is located.

However, If the cost of living is taken into account, Portugal drops even further: it becomes the fifth country with the lowest average salary. In this scenario, it is only surpassed by Slovakia, Greece, Hungary and Bulgaria.

In Spain, the contrast with Portugal is stark: salaries are, on average, a third higher.
The Portuguese minimum wage is also in a bad position in the table. When considered at purchasing power parity, it is also among the ten lowest of the 22 EU countries with a minimum wage.

“In 20 years, Portugal was surpassed by Poland, Lithuania and Romania with regard to the national minimum wage”which is “26% lower than in Spain, 47% less than in France and just 5% higher” than in Greek, says the report.

Data from the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation used by Pordata also reveal that the average monthly salary of employees in Portugal, including overtime, holiday and Christmas bonuses or bonuses, was 1,368 euros.

“The national minimum wage is increasingly closer to the average wage. In 2002, the minimum wage corresponded to 43% of the average earnings and in 2022 this percentage had already risen to 52%”, the document reads.

Of the economic activities with more than 75 thousand employees, the average salary of workers in the agriculture and fishing sector is among the lowest, standing at 916 euros.

Half of workers are between 44 and 64 years old
“The worker has grown old.” This is another of Pordata’s main conclusions, according to which, 20 years ago, a third of workers were between 44 and 64 years old. Currently, that number has risen to half.

“Young workers, up to the age of 24, fell by more than 40%. The age group of workers that increased the most was between 55 and 64 years old, registering an increase of 66%”, explains this entity.

These numbers make Portugal the fourth country with the oldest workforce (for every 100 workers under 35 there are 99 over 54), only surpassed by Bulgaria, Latvia and Italy.

Uneducated bosses
The data also reveals that Portugal is the EU country with the highest proportion of employers without education or with basic education. Almost half (44%) of these have, at most, up to the 9th year of schooling.

In the case of employees, education levels are distributed: one third has up to the 9th grade, another third has completed secondary education and another has a higher education degree.

Pordata also makes a portrait of workers in part-timewhich, according to what was found, there are only eight out of every 100. “Portugal is the 10th country of the 27 in the European Union with the lowest proportion of part-time workers”, he says.

And if, in nations like the Netherlands and Austria, more than half of employed women work part-timein Portugal only one in ten does so.

The issue of fixed-term contracts was another one analyzed, with Pordata concluding that, in Portugal, one in every six workers has this type of contract, a ratio that has remained practically unchanged for two decades.

“It is the third European country with the most fixed-term contracts – of the total number of workers in Portugal, 17.4% have a fixed-term contract, a value above the average in the EU27, which is 13.4%. With the highest percentage are Serbia and the Netherlands, which lead the table”, indicates the report.