Without super salaries, 70% of employees earn up to BRL 5,000 – 07/22/2023 – Market

The civil service elite is famous for its privileges. There are constant surveys carried out to denounce the group with super salaries, the one who earns above the ceiling foreseen for the public sector, today at R$ 41,650. Little is known, however, about the set of servers below this caste, which mostly receive practically a tenth of the limit.

República.org, an institute dedicated to improving people management in the Brazilian public service, has just created and made available on its website República em Dados, a query database that consolidates information on civil servants, collected by different official sources, such as the Brazilian State Atlas of Ipea (Institute for Applied Economic Research) and Rais (Annual List of Social Information, from the Ministry of Labor and Employment).

The consultation is public, and the numbers demystify much of what is propagated as perks in relation to the Brazilian civil service.

“In fact, the Brazilian State reproduces in the public service many of the inequalities of society that we see on a daily basis, but the stigma prevails that every public servant earns too much, which is not true”, says Helena Wajnman, executive director of República.org.

Based on the data, Helena explains that half of the civil servants receive around R$3,400 per month, that is, less than two minimum wages, which today is set at R$1,320. Expanding the scope a little, 70% of the total receive up to R$ 5,000 monthly.

The calculation considers the paychecks of statutory servants, the group that took part in the competition and has stability, in the different Powers —Executive, Legislative and Judiciary— in different spheres —municipalities, states and the Union. This is a mass of almost 7 million people.

The account does not include non-statutory employees, who have other types of ties. Just as informal workers in the private sector earn less than registered workers, they earn less than public sector workers. There is no accurate estimate for the difference, because the values ​​vary so much. This group brings together 4 million people, 39% of the total.

There are servers in the CLT model, which can be fired at any time. Many today have a temporary contract, a modality that has grown especially in municipal and state education. There is also a server hired for temporary partnerships, meeting the demand for projects.

The structuring of a mixed contracting system, with types of bond, but which maintains earnings and preserves State careers, is an ongoing debate in the sector.

Among the candidates, what pulls the general average of income down is the geography of hiring.

Contrary to popular belief, most civil servants are not sitting in offices in Brasília, where federal civil servants are concentrated and where higher amounts are paid. This sphere hires only 8.2% of the total.

The states hire 31.4% of public servants, with an emphasis on around 530,000 military and civil police officers responsible for public security.

The largest part, 59.8%, is spread across the country’s 5,568 municipalities, where you pay less. The highlight are professionals such as teachers, nurses and social workers, who deal directly with members of their communities.

The contingent of municipal servants was the one that grew the most since the 1990s, to fulfill the universalization of the right to health and education provided for in the 1988 Constitution.

The so-called supersalaries are above the ceiling of R$ 41,650, which is equivalent to the maximum income of the judge of the Federal Supreme Court. This small group represents 0.06% of the total. Among the most cited members are judges, prosecutors and prosecutors.

The rule that a server cannot earn more than the ceiling is provided for in the Constitution, but alternative interpretations were created that opened legal space for earnings above the limit. A bill stalled in the Senate seeks to cap excess earnings once and for all.

Experts, however, warn that, in order to reduce the large salary gaps in the public sector, it is also necessary to reduce the difference in the base.

“There are huge distortions and lack of uniformity in the rules of each career and their remuneration”, says Vera Monteiro, professor of Administrative Law at FGV Direito SP (São Paulo Law School of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation).

“Among the urgent issues is enforcing the ceiling rule, but reducing the distance between the highest and lowest salaries demands other initiatives, such as the creation of bodies to manage performance, in different careers, so that those who work best are valued.”

Another problem that produces wage inequality is low diversity, which is best measured in career progression.

In the Federal Executive, white men receive an average of R$ 8,774, and black men, R$ 7,753. White women, BRL 6,272, and black women have the lowest income, BRL 5,815. The wage difference is due to the fact that white men are more likely to rise to leadership positions than other segments.

An example. White men are historically the majority in the DAS-6 (Direction and Advisory Level 6), the top of the commissioners, positions of trust occupied by people appointed by the members of the government at the time. They are chosen.

Career reform and a new personnel management are ways to change this internal dynamic. Many believe, however, that distortions of this low inclusion could be corrected with the restructuring of public tenders.

Experts have been debating the issue for some time, with arguments for and against. The main one is that public tenders were captured by an “approval industry”. It mainly attracts the so-called concurseiros, people who have the time and money to prepare, not necessarily a vocation.

“To make public tenders more effective in measuring candidates’ abilities and skills, it is necessary to rethink the traditional way of conducting these selection processes”, says Renata Vilhena, President of the Council of the Republic.org.

“New ways, with the assessment of practical skills, group dynamics and simulations, interviews, relevant professional experience, among others, may be essential to capture the desired profiles for each position. These changes in the dynamics of public tenders may help to create a more inclusive process.”

A bill is pending in Congress that precisely seeks to change the general rule for public tenders.

Political scientist Paula Frias, who is part of the group responsible for the platform, explains that the user has autonomy to make correlations beyond those published in the report, just access the link.