Workers at the Lajes Base continue to earn less than the minimum basic salary. Americans have created a supplement to correct the problem. Still, those with more years of service end up disadvantaged, warns the workers’ union, SITACEHT, insisting on reviewing and updating the salary scale.
“A supplement was created that is added to the basic salary and they forgot that in the salary scale there are several levels that include seniority (…) A worker who has 10 or 15 years of service and who already has two seniority, when he reaches the end of the month he will earn 861 euros, like any worker who starts work and has no experience,” said Vítor Silva yesterday.
The Manufacturing, Food, Trade and Office coordinator, Hotel and Tourism Industries Union (SITACEHT) has been warning about this situation since 2021.
Updating the pay scales for the 450 or so Portuguese employees working for Feusaçores (US forces stationed at Lajes Base) has not kept pace with the increase in the national minimum wage.
In July 2024, base workers were given a 4.7% pay rise, but several grades and steps on the salary scale have values below 861 euros, the value set in January for the regional minimum wage in the Azores, which is 5% higher than the national minimum wage.
The situation is repeated in the first grades of three scales, and in one of them, the minimum wage, equivalent to three days’ pay, is absorbed in step 3.
To prevent Portuguese workers from earning less than the regional minimum wage, a supplement has been created, which equals the amount received at 861 euros. However, this means that salaries between the different levels affected are not differentiated.
“What is most inconceivable to me is that anyone would consider this a good solution,” criticized Vítor Silva, adding that the salary increase achieved in 2024 (4.7%) was lower than in 2023.


As the salary scale at the Lajes Base is only updated in July, at the beginning of 2025, with a foreseeable new increase in the regional minimum wage, more grades and steps will be covered.
“This doesn’t make any sense, it’s an unfair, discriminatory situation that doesn’t exist anywhere else in our country, because salary is salary and seniority is seniority,” said the union leader.
The SITACEHT/Azores coordinator has already requested meetings with political parties and the vice president of the regional government to ask for a correction to this situation.
“A very simple mechanism could have been created, which was to say: the first grade of the salary scale has to be equal to or higher than the minimum wage practiced in the region. It’s as simple as that,” he said, adding that the scale should be updated in January.
Vítor Silva blamed the Portuguese government for “rushing to legalize non-compliance on the part of the Americans,” accepting the creation of the supplement instead of demanding a revision of the salary scale.
“I think everyone realizes that the Americans can pay much more than that; in fact, they pay much more at all the other bases they have on the European continent. Lajes is one of the bases with the lowest salaries,” he said.
The union leader insisted on revising the salary scale, pointing out that the last revision occurred almost 30 years ago.
“I’m surprised that nothing is ever obtained in return from the US side and that it always has to be the Portuguese side that gives in. I’m disgusted that the workers are always the losers in this process,” he said.
According to the union official, eight employees have already submitted complaints to the Portuguese and US commanders, but the process is “difficult and discouraging.”

in Diário Insular – José Lourenço, director

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