The minimum wage in Portugal: how much it is in 2026 and what counts

How much the minimum wage is in 2026

The guaranteed minimum monthly pay, the legal name for what everyone calls the minimum wage, is €920 a month on the Portuguese mainland in 2026. It was set by Decree-Law 139/2025 of 29 December, with effect from 1 January¹, and is €50 up on the €870 of 2025.

The two autonomous regions have their own figures, and they are always higher:

In Madeira the figure is approved year by year by the regional legislative assembly: for 2026 it was €980, which is 6.52% above the mainland value². The Azores work differently, under a permanent rule: since 2002 regional law has required 5% to be added to the national minimum³, which in 2026 comes to exactly €966. What governs is the region where the work is performed, not where the company is registered.

What reaches your account: the net minimum wage

Exactly one thing comes off the gross figure: the employee Social Security contribution of 11%. And, contrary to what most people expect, no income tax is withheld.

The reason is worth knowing, and it is not a coincidence: in 2026 each territory's withholding tables set the exemption limit at exactly that region's minimum wage. On the mainland, the first row of the tables exempts pay up to €920⁵. In Madeira, the regional order moved the exemption limit to €980⁶. In the Azores, table I opens with "up to €966.00, 0.00%"⁷.

One important note: having no monthly withholding is not the same as having no return to file. Withholding is only an advance payment; the annual IRS return is still filed, and that is where the final tax is settled, sometimes as a refund.

How much the minimum wage is per hour

The hourly value is not the salary divided by 160, nor by 176. The formula is in article 271 of the Labour Code⁴:

hourly value = (monthly pay × 12) ÷ (52 × weekly working hours)

On a full 40-hour week that gives €5.31 an hour on the mainland, €5.65 in Madeira and €5.57 in the Azores. An eight-hour day is worth €42.46 on the mainland. To run the conversion the other way, from an hourly figure, use the hourly rate calculator.

Part-time minimum wage: proportional to the hours

Article 154(3) of the Labour Code gives a part-time worker base pay in proportion to their normal weekly working hours⁴. A 20-hour contract, against a 40-hour full-time week, is entitled to half the minimum: €460 on the mainland.

The right-hand column is the point: the hourly value never changes. That is precisely what the proportionality rule protects. Watch the denominator, though: if your sector's collective agreement sets a full-time week of 35 hours, those 35 hours earn the full minimum, and a 20-hour schedule is worth 20/35 of the minimum, not 20/40.

What counts, and what does not, towards the minimum wage

This is the costliest and most common mistake. The minimum is measured against pay, not against the sum of everything printed on the payslip. Article 274 of the Labour Code⁴ separates the two:

Counts towards the minimum:

• benefits in kind, such as food or accommodation, within their own ceilings (at most 35% of the minimum for full board, 15% for one main meal, 12% for the worker's accommodation and 50% for all benefits in kind together);
• sales commission and production bonuses;
• gratuities that qualify as pay.

Does not count (paragraph 4): any allowance, bonus or gratuity granted occasionally or for a period longer than a month. That leaves out the meal allowance and the holiday and Christmas bonuses.

In practice: a payslip with €850 of base pay plus €150 of meal allowance shows €1,000, but it is paying below the minimum wage, because base pay does not reach €920.

The only two reductions the law allows

Outside the cases in article 275⁴, there is no lawful way to pay less than the minimum, and the worker's consent changes nothing.

1. Trainee, apprentice, intern or person in certified training: a 20% reduction, which gives €736 on the mainland in 2026. It cannot last more than a year, counting training time with another employer for the same qualification, and the limit drops to six months where the worker already holds a relevant technical or vocational qualification.
2. Worker with reduced working capacity: the reduction is the gap between full capacity and the effective-capacity coefficient for the contracted activity, applies only where that gap exceeds 10%, and never goes beyond 50%. The coefficient is certified, at the request of the worker, the job applicant or the employer, by the public employment service or the health services: the employer does not decide it.

How much it is per year: 14 months, not 12

The minimum wage is paid 14 times a year. The holiday and Christmas bonuses each add one month of pay to the 12⁴. On the mainland:

The holiday and Christmas bonuses also pay the 11% Social Security contribution. If you prefer to receive them monthly, in twelfths, the yearly total is identical and only the timing changes: see the duodécimos calculator.

How it has evolved, and where it is heading

Portugal has had a national minimum wage since 1974, updated by law every year after the Standing Committee for Social Dialogue is heard⁴. The recent mainland series, from the official record⁸:

The 2025-2028 tripartite agreement on wage growth and economic development, signed with the social partners in October 2024, points to €970 in 2027 and €1,020 in 2028⁹. That is a path agreed in social dialogue, not a law: each year has its own decree-law, normally published in December, and that is what governs.

What if the employer pays less?

Paying below the minimum wage is a very serious administrative offence, and the decision imposing the fine must also order the unpaid wages to be paid to the worker within the deadline set for paying the fine⁴. Enforcement is the job of the Authority for Working Conditions, where the worker can file a complaint, and the legal minimum prevails over any lower figure written into a contract or a collective agreement.

If the problem is unpaid wages rather than the agreed figure, the route is different: see the wage guarantee fund, which steps in when the company becomes insolvent.