EVENT INFORMATION

1
May
1940

Brazil establishes a national minimum-wage system

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📅 1 May 1940 📍 Brazil

Decree-Law 2,162 instituted a statutory minimum wage and set regional schedules. A wage floor recognized workers as people with claims on employers, but protections depended on which sectors and workers were covered and enforced. The law’s regional structure also produced different nominal wage levels. This milestone belongs in a post-abolition account without implying that wage labor was equivalent to slavery.

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People in this event

workers

employers

Getúlio Vargas

Organizations in this Event

federal government

Ministry of Labor