The law that created the minimum wage (nº 185, of 1936), and that would be regulated in 1940, it was the result of a context of workers’ struggles, marked a social reorganization and upset economic elites, evaluate historians interviewed by the Brazil Agency. 
The first article of the law states: “Every worker has the right, in payment for the service provided, to a minimum wage capable of satisfying, in a given region of the country and at a given time, their normal needs for food, housing, clothing, hygiene and transportation.”
The legislation turns 90 years old this Wednesday (14). According to history professor Mateus Gamba Torres, from the University of Brasília (UnB), during the 1910s and 1920s, strikes occurred in Brazil demanding better working conditions.
“Until then, the contract was civil, for the provision of services. There was no minimum amount that the employer should pay”, he states.
Pressures
In fact, since the end of the 19th century, as he explains, worker movements and the international context, such as the more advanced legislation in other countries (including Uruguay) also favored evolution in Brazil.
Another researcher, professor Deusdedith Rocha, from the Centro Universitário de Brasília (Ceub), points out that this was a period of reorganization of labor relations at the time.
“This is a period of transition from a more agro-exporting society to an increasingly urban and industrial society”, he states.
According to him, the change introduced a new culture, even though it was effective, in practice, in the Southeast Region. Rocha assesses that, despite the evolution of relations with the minimum wage, the legislation favored political control.
In relation to this moment, Mateus Torres, from UnB, highlights that the history of citizenship gains by the working class is related to the pressure exerted on public representatives, as was the case.
Dubious stance
The then president Getúlio Vargas also suffered pressure from economic elites, as researchers identify, even with more money injected into the economy. According to professor Deusdedith Rocha, the Brazilian elite had an ambivalent stance when receiving the news of the minimum wage.
“It both resisted and strategically accommodated itself to adapt to the changes that were occurring at that time. The distrust of the agrarian sector was compensated by the idea of social stabilization”, he states.
Mateus Gamba, from UnB, adds that the minimum has been consolidated as a fundamental achievement for the regulation of labor relations.
“Workers perceived the minimum wage as something fundamental to have a greater chance of survival.”
