Average real usual earnings from work grew by 2.5% in the third quarter of 2022, from July to September, compared to the same period of 2021. According to a study released today (6) by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), this is the first quarter that shows interannual growth in average earnings from work since the first quarter of 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic began.
In terms of values, the real average usual income recorded for the period, of BRL 2,737, is still below the levels observed before the pandemic, but has already reached the levels observed in 2017. The usual income is how much workers usually receive monthly for their work. The cash is how much they actually received.
According to the analysis, the worst impact of the fall in earnings in the third quarter of 2022 occurred among workers in the public sector, with declines in usual and effective income of 2.3% and 3%, respectively. For workers in the private sector with a formal contract, there was an increase in income in the third quarter of 2022 of around 1.6% of usual income.
In turn, the informal workers were the ones who had the greatest increase in effective income, with an increase of 5.4% for self-employed workers and 4.9% for those without a formal contract.
The biggest increases in effective income were in the Midwest and North regions (8.3% and 5.3% respectively). The Northeast Region had an increase of only 0.7% in effective income and 1.4% in usual income. In the Southeast Region, there was a 1% increase in usual income in the third quarter of 2022 compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
The study also shows wage differences between men and women. The analysis of actual and usual earnings received by women, in recent quarters, showed a performance inferior to that of men. While men had an increase of 3.3% in their usual income and 3.4% in their actual income, women had an increase of 1.7% in their usual income and 1.5% in their actual income.
Ipea analysis
Following the pattern during the pandemic, in most sectors, there was an increase in usual income during 2020 and a drop in effective income, according to the analysis by Ipea. The activities most dependent on the movement of people had the greatest reduction in effective income in 2020: transport, personal and collective services, accommodation and food, commerce and construction. It is precisely this greater impact that explains the recovery of effective income in such sectors after the Monday half of the year 2021.
In 2022, the more formal sectors and those with more qualified workers show a greater drop in income, with emphasis on public administration (a drop of 11.3% in effective income in the second quarter of 2022 and 0.6% in the third quarter) and education and health (fall of 11.1% and 5.3% in effective income in the second and third quarters respectively), in addition to industry (fall of 1.5% in effective income in the third quarter of 2022).
Professional services begin to show greater recovery in the third quarter of 2022, with a 3.6% increase in effective income compared to the same quarter of the previous year. However, it was the more informal and less qualified sectors that showed stronger income growth, such as, for example, transport (3.9% of usual income and 2.0% of effective income), construction (5.4% of usual income and 5.3% of the effective one), personal and collective services (9.6% of the usual income and 10.8% of the effective one), accommodation and food (2.6% of the usual income and 5.5% of the effective one ) and agriculture (12.6% of usual income and 12.7% of actual income).
