Flash News NA 09/24/2025
Incentive for Salary Increases in Portugal: A Fiscal Measure with Potential and Difficulties
The Incentive for Salary Increases, provided for in Article 19-B of the Tax Benefits Statute, represents an opportunity to promote sustained salary increases. However, the changes introduced in 2025 bring new challenges that require careful planning on the part of companies.
Wage increases have been a priority in public policy in Portugal, and the tax regime associated with the increase in wage costs aims to encourage companies to follow suit. The objective is clear: to encourage real growth in workers’ remuneration and reduce internal disparities.
In 2025, the most significant changes focus on the dual criterion of growth: average wages must increase by at least 4.7%, and workers with wages below this average must benefit from an identical minimum increase. This mechanism is ambitious and could contribute to greater wage equity, but it also puts additional pressure on sectors with low margins or very heterogeneous wage structures.
The requirement to maintain or reduce the “wage range,” even after the revocation of its legal definition, adds interpretative uncertainty, creating potential risks of unequal application. In addition, limiting the regime to companies covered by a Collective Labor Regulation Instrument excludes a significant part of the economy, particularly emerging and highly skilled areas such as technology.
It is therefore essential that companies align their salary and human resources policies with the requirements of the regime at an early stage, avoiding surprises at the end of the fiscal year, when verification of compliance may already be too late.
Conclusion:
The Salary Enhancement Incentive is a positive step towards boosting workers’ income and rewarding companies that invest in fair remuneration policies.
However, its implementation requires technical rigor, planning, and continuous monitoring.
At Nominaurea, we support companies in analyzing access conditions, designing compatible salary strategies, and correctly applying this incentive for tax purposes. Our goal is to turn this challenge into an opportunity for sustainable growth.
