"The current government had set the target of increasing the national minimum wage from the current 820, in 2015 it was 505, to 900 euros by 2026. We propose that, at the end of the next legislature, in 2028, the minimum wage reaches at least the 1,000 euros”, announced Pedro Nuno Santos in the closing speech of the 24th National Congress of the PS, in Lisbon.

The socialist general secretary highlighted that “one of the concerns of the Portuguese is the low level of their salaries”, highlighting that “the country has made a lot of progress in the last eight years, but we are aware that there is a lot to do”.

“We should also review the income agreement recently negotiated in social consultation, so that the increase in the minimum wage can be associated with an increase in average wages,” he said.

Regarding pensions, Pedro Nuno Santos assured that the PS will "comply with the law that regulates their updating, guaranteeing a minimum increase for the lowest pensions", and considered that, "unlike the PSD", the PS trusts the public system of pensions.

In the housing sector, the PS leader highlighted that “the biggest reform” in the sector is underway, with the construction and rehabilitation of 32 thousand homes by 2026, but argued that, in the short term, “it is also necessary to better regulate the market”, highlighting that in recent years “rents have seen large increases, unsustainable for many families”.

“To address this situation, it is our objective to define, with the National Statistics Institute (INE), a new index for updating incomes that takes into account the evolution of salaries”, he announced.

Pedro Nuno Santos indicated that, when inflation is “equal or lower” than 2%, the update of rents will remain the same as today, but, if it is higher than that value, “it will have to take into account the capacity for people to pay them, a capacity that is measured by the evolution of salaries”.

“In other words, in years of high inflation, in years of high inflation, the evolution of income cannot be disconnected from the evolution of wages”, he summarized.