Barbecue with picanha steak, with a real price increase of only 1,3%, is unacceptable!

Antonio Carlos Silva

Throughout his campaign, comrade Lula rightly spoke of the need for a real increase in the minimum wage, after four years without an increase during the Bolsonaro government, and repeatedly spoke about the desire and right of Brazilian workers to "eat barbecue with picanha and a beer," a treat enjoyed by the vast majority of Brazilian workers, but which they have been increasingly unable to enjoy due to unemployment and wage stagnation that has worsened over years of the coup d'état.

 This was undoubtedly one of the most popular proposals that, along with others, helped the country's most popular leader win the votes of millions of Brazilian workers, hopeful that with Lula in government, real changes would occur in their living conditions.

Bolsonaro's minimum of hunger

Currently under consideration in the reactionary National Congress is the proposed budget for 2023, based on the proposal submitted by Bolsonaro. In it, the minimum wage is set at R$1.302 starting in January. This would represent an 8,3% adjustment, which only covers official inflation, far below the increase in the cost of living for Brazilians. Inflation has impacted wages, especially those earning up to three minimum wages (approximately 80% of Brazilian workers), exceeding 12%. Food prices alone have risen by more than 20%. And the majority of the salary of those who earn little goes towards food.

Four out of ten workers (38,22%) earn up to one minimum wage. More than 79% earn up to three minimum wages per month. This is a fundamental issue for the vast majority of the population.

The new government and the real increase

That the reactionary Congress and the Bolsonaro government want to rob the people and lower wages is even "normal"; they represent the interests of big capitalists against the workers.

However, a different stance is expected from the Lula government and its representatives. This is because a real wage increase is a fundamental measure for active and retired workers and will serve to broaden support for the government, elected in a close vote, even among those who did not vote for Lula.

It is therefore surprising that the representative of Lula's team to negotiate the Union Budget with Congress, the former governor and senator-elect, Wellington Dias (PT-PI), announced – through the bourgeois press – that in 2023 the "real increase will be 1,3% or 1,4% above inflation".

He did it with a certain air of contentment. When there is nothing to celebrate. This percentage would represent an increase of around R$16, a little over R$0,53 per day. A negligible amount that wouldn't even buy half a kilo of second-grade meat in a month, or a French roll in a day.

If the change in the minimum wage for 2023 doesn't depend exclusively on the will of the elected government, since it will only take office in January, then it shouldn't commit to such a miserable minimum wage. Therefore, it's a mistake to announce that adding this paltry 1,3% constitutes a real increase. That's pure deception, typical of bourgeois politicians, enemies of the people.

The bourgeoisie and its reactionary National Congress will certainly pressure the Lula government to maintain the wage policy imposed more sharply since the coup d'état (2016), which involved a general reduction in wages. This is about defending their interests against those of the working people.

Minimum wage and hunger

The basic food basket, containing only essential food products for one person, reached R$750,34 in São Paulo in September, according to Dieese. A family of four (two adults and two children or young people) needs to consume at least 3 baskets per month, which would cost R$2.250 more than the net value (after deducting Social Security) of the minimum wage at its current value and even at the value projected for January 23.

In other words, this amount isn't even enough to put food on the family table. It forces housewives and workers to forgo essential products, essentially leading to deprivation.

Furthermore, the index used as the basis for calculating wage inflation, the IPCA, does not measure inflation for the poorest families (the vast majority), as it is calculated according to the variation in the average cost of living for families earning between one and 40 minimum wages, giving less weight to items such as the basic food basket, which are fundamental for most of those who earn less.

Using GDP growth as the criterion is not the way to raise wages during a capitalist crisis. When the economy was growing, wages saw small increases that did not guarantee a profound change in living conditions. Now that the economy is not growing or is growing very little, they want the worker to foot the bill.

Only through mobilization will there be a real increase.

The task of the CUT (Unified Workers' Central), the unions, the left-wing parties, and all organizations fighting for the exploited, must be to push in the opposite direction, that is, towards meeting the real needs of the workers, a real increase in the minimum wage, compensation for wage losses, etc. This is something recognized by the president-elect himself.

Studies carried out by National Trade Union Current Workers' Cause (CSNCORegarding what the minimum living wage should be to meet the needs of a working family, as established in the Constitution, the basic figures presented in the table below are shown:

When a worker demands to be paid the minimum living wage, which today could not be less than R$7, they are simply asking for the law, made by employers and their representatives, to be enforced.

The CUT (Unified Workers' Central), the unions, and people's organizations must support the policy of real wage increases, fighting to defend a vital minimum wage and a 100% increase in all salaries, which would allow workers to actually achieve, among other things, the much-desired "barbecue with picanha and beer" announced by Lula during the election campaign.