The minimum wage in the Azores will be 861. The increase will take effect on January 1st next year.
The increase stems from the formula stipulated by law whenever it is also increased on the mainland, which happened when António Costa’s government approved the decree increasing the national minimum wage to 820 euros.
In fact, not even 24 hours have passed since the government approved the increase in the national minimum wage to 820 euros in the Council of Ministers as of January 2024. Still, the President of the Republic has already given the “green light” to this increase.
Three of the four employers’ confederations and the UGT agreed to the new guaranteed minimum wage in Social Dialogue.
“The President of the Republic yesterday promulgated the government decree increasing the national minimum wage,” says a note published yesterday on the Presidency’s website.
The income agreement signed a year ago with the four employers’ confederations and the UGT foresaw a rise in the national minimum wage to 810 euros in 2024. Still, the social partners ended up negotiating a more robust rise in the guaranteed minimum wage for next year.


On October 7 of this year, a reinforcement of this agreement was signed (without the Portuguese Business Confederation), which foresees that the national minimum wage will rise from 760 euros to 820 euros in January.
Despite the political crisis, on Thursday, the government approved this increase in the minimum wage in the Council of Ministers, and the head of state promulgated it on Friday morning.
This is an increase of 60 euros in the guaranteed minimum wage. “It corresponds to the largest increase in the guaranteed minimum monthly wage ever seen, of 7.9%,” the Executive stressed in Thursday’s statement, in line with what had already been emphasized by the Prime Minister himself (now resigned).
On Thursday, the President of the Republic announced that he will dissolve Parliament after the State Budget for 2024 has been approved.

In Diário dos Açores-Osvaldo Cabral, director

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno.