In the first quarter of the year, it rose 9.86% to 1,203 euros, which represents 108 euros more compared to the same period last year, when the average salary already net of taxes and social contributions was 1,095 euros per month, according to ECO calculations based on new data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), together with employment statistics for the period between January and March 2025.
In real terms, after discounting the impact of the average inflation of the last 12 months recorded in March, of 2.42%, the growth was lower, but still significant: 7.2% or 78.9 euros. This means that 29.1 euros of the nominal increase of 108 euros was “eaten up” by the rise in prices. Subtracting the effect of the cost of living, the average net salary rose to 1,173.9 euros.
The average monthly net income of the employed population, after withholding tax for personal income tax and social contributions, has been growing consecutively. Last year, workers’ payroll rose €100 to €1,142, corresponding to an increase of 9.6%, compared to the average salary of €1,042 in 2023. It was the biggest increase of the decade.
The beginning of 2025 maintains this upward trajectory in salaries, with emphasis on the salaries of mid-level technicians, Armed Forces, teachers and doctors, who had the largest salary increases in this period.
In the chain variation, from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the first three months of 2025, the increase in the average net salary was more modest, 1.6% or 19 euros, compared to the salary of 1,184 euros calculated by the INE.
Biggest pay rises
Analysing the variation in average net salaries by profession groups, the INE shows that, in the first quarter of the year, technicians and intermediate-level professions, which include teachers and doctors, and the Armed Forces, were the professions that recorded the greatest increase in salaries.
At the top of the ranking are intermediate-level technicians who now earn 1,294 euros, that is, 11.94% or 138 euros more, compared to their salary a year ago, which was 1,156 euros. Second comes the group of scientific and intellectual activities. The payroll of these professionals rose from 1,499 euros to 1,651 euros, an increase of 152 euros, which translates into a year-on-year growth of 10.14%, mainly on the back of the unfreezing of teachers’ careers and the valorization of doctors’ careers.
Completing the podium of the biggest increases in average net salary are members of the Armed Forces, who had a pay increase of 9.9% or 137 euros, which raised their salary from 1,384 to 1,521 euros, a result influenced by the update of salaries and by a new increase of 50 euros in the military condition supplement, which went from 300 to 350 euros per month, at the beginning of the year.
In the opposite direction, among the professional groups with less significant salary increases, in year-on-year terms, and which remained below the average increase (9.86%), are representatives of the legislative branch and top managers, unskilled employees and assembly workers.
Between January and March, the salary of representatives of the Legislature and executive bodies, directors, officers and executive managers reached R$1,945, an increase of 5.20% or R$96 compared to the salary of the same period last year, of R$1,846. This evolution is directly related to the end of the 5% salary cut at the beginning of the year. The penalty on political office holders and public managers had been in place since the troika period and was eliminated by a proposal from the PSD and CDS, approved within the scope of the State Budget for 2025 (OE2025).
