The National Consumer Price Index (INPC) – an indicator used to calculate the annual minimum wage adjustment – recorded 0.03% in November and accumulated 4.18% in 12 months.
The data was released this Wednesday (10), by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The 2025 minimum wage is R$1,518. For 2026, the adjustment rule determines that the value undergoes two corrections. One is for the 12-month INPC accumulated until November of the previous year, 2025. That is, the 4.18% announced today.
The second fix is the growth of the economy two years earlier, in this case, 2024. On the 4th, the IBGE revised the data on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP, set of goods and services produced in the country) for 2024, confirming the expansion at 3.4%.
However, the fiscal framework – the mechanism that controls the evolution of public spending – determines that the gain above inflation is limited to a range of 0.6% to 2.5%.
According to this rule, the minimum wage in 2026 could be R$1,620.99. With the rounding provided by law, R$ 1,621. Total adjustment of R$ 103 (6.79%).
Revision
The result announced this Wednesday will make the government review calculations for public accounts next year, as the 2026 Budget Guidelines Bill, approved in Congress, estimates the minimum wage at R$1,627, which would represent an adjustment of 7.18%.
The value of the minimum wage has an impact on public accounts, in addition to the effect itself, as it serves as a basis for other expenses such as the Continuous Payment Benefit (BPC), paid to elderly people and people with disabilities in vulnerable situations.
INPC x IPCA
Just as the minimum wage takes into account the amount accumulated up to November, unemployment insurance, the INSS ceiling and the benefit for those who earn above the minimum wage are readjusted based on the result of the INPC accumulated up to December.
The INPC is always published in parallel with another IBGE index, the Broad National Consumer Price Index (IPCA), known as official inflation, which closed November at 0.18% and accumulated 4.46% in 12 months.
The difference between the two is that the INPC calculates the variation in the cost of living for families with an income of up to five minimum wages and the IPCA up to 40 minimum wages.
IBGE gives different weights to the price groups surveyed. In the INPC, for example, food represents almost 25% of the index, more than in the IPCA, around 21%, as lower-income families spend proportionally more on food. From the opposite perspective, the price of a plane ticket weighs less on the INPC than on the IPCA.
According to IBGE, the INPC calculation “aims to correct the purchasing power of salaries, through measuring price variations in the consumption basket of the lowest-income salaried population”.
Price collection is carried out in ten metropolitan regions: Belém, Fortaleza, Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Vitória, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre. Collection is also carried out in Brasília, Goiânia, Campo Grande, Rio Branco, São Luís and Aracaju.
