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Number Of Self-Employed Workers With CNPJ Grows Rapidly In Brazil, With Earnings Higher Than Those Of Regular Employees In Many Areas, While Costs And Fiscal Impact Spark Debate About The Model And Its Consequences.
The number of Brazilians working as self-employed with CNPJ has grown significantly in recent years, and in many occupations, the remuneration of these professionals exceeds that of regular employees performing similar functions.
According to a report published by Folha de S.Paulo, there are records of situations where the amounts paid to so-called PJs reach double, or more, of the salary of formally employed workers.
This phenomenon has encouraged the migration to this format, but raises suspicions in the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) that, in many cases, the change is imposed by companies.
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This movement has caused a significant reduction in contributions from employers and employees to the Federal Revenue and Social Security.
Part of this decline is offset by the warming of the labor market and the increase in formal hiring, but the fiscal impact is still relevant.
Salary Difference And Profile Of PJs
A study by economist Nelson Marconi from the São Paulo School of Business Administration at Fundação Getulio Vargas (Eaesp-FGV) indicates that, in most sectors, self-employed professionals with CNPJ earn more than regular employees.
According to the newspaper’s findings, the analysis considered the average income of professions based on data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD-C), assigning a value of 1 to the average and comparing groups.
According to Marconi, the advantage is more visible among workers with higher education.
He notes that there is currently a “preference for autonomy and freedom in working hours”, without this representing a precarious situation, due to the level of qualification of this group.
Even in sectors with lower educational requirements and high labor demand, such as construction and commerce, PJs exhibit higher earnings than those under the CLT.
Costs For Companies And Loss Of Rights
According to Marconi, the high cost of hiring with formal contracts leads to a scenario where companies and workers seek alternatives.
For the professional, there is the possibility of earning higher remuneration, although this means giving up benefits such as vacations and thirteenth salary.
For the employer, the savings come with the challenge of dealing with higher turnover and lower ties to the company.
Another survey by Eaesp, cited by Folha de S.Paulo, indicates that to maintain a formal employee, the company’s expenditure is, on average, 68.1% higher than the salary paid due to charges like FGTS, vacations, thirteenth salary, and INSS.
By hiring a PJ, the company avoids these costs and, in many cases, passes part of the savings on to the worker.
Accelerated Growth Of Pejotization
The MTE determined that, between 2022 and 2024, about 4.8 million laid-off workers returned to the market as PJs — with 3.8 million as individual micro-entrepreneurs (MEI) and 1 million in other modalities, such as under the Simples Nacional.
The cross-referencing of data through CPF confirmed that they were indeed the same individuals.
For the ministry, this data reinforces that, in many cases, pejotization is not a spontaneous choice.
The general coordinator of Labor Inspection and Promotion of Decent Work at MTE, Dercylete Loureiro, stated to the newspaper that outsourcing was regulated by the labor reform of 2017, but within specific parameters.
According to her, “there are many cases where a person does not have a CNPJ to undertake. On the contrary, they are forced to do so to access job positions”.
Loureiro warns that, if it is not due to awareness, it will be due to the “pain” of lost revenue that the law will have to be enforced.
Impact On Revenue
The MTE study shows that, with the migration to CNPJ, R$ 61.4 billion were not collected by Social Security and R$ 24.2 billion from FGTS during the analyzed period.
Eaesp calculated that the average annual tax revenue from a PJ in the MEI or Simples regime was R$ 4.1 thousand by the end of 2023, compared to over R$ 33.1 thousand for an employee with a formal contract.
As pointed out by Folha de S.Paulo, if all workers hired since 2017 had been under formal contracts, the revenue would have been R$ 144 billion higher.
Litigation And Debate In The STF
Between 2020 and March of this year, 1.2 million lawsuits in Labor Court sought recognition of ties, representing 8.3% of the total of processes.
In light of the volume, Minister Gilmar Mendes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) suspended in April all actions discussing the legality of hiring independent contractors or PJs.
A public hearing was scheduled for September 10, when the impacts of pejotization on revenue and labor relations will be debated before the Court makes a final decision.
What Specialists Advocate
For José Pastore, a professor at the School of Economics, Business and Accounting at the University of São Paulo (FEA-USP), there is a “large gray area” between activities that can be performed by independent contractors and those that require formal ties.
He is in favor of pejotization in various functions but considers the low contribution of PJs to Social Security, especially from MEIs, problematic, as they pay monthly between R$ 76.90 and R$ 81.90, including INSS, ICMS, and ISS.
Central Issue
While some workers see in the CNPJ the chance to increase earnings and control their own working hours, others face pejotization as the only option to remain employed.
The topic, now under analysis by the STF, could redefine the balance between cost, social protection, and contractual freedom in the country. In your sector, does the PJ model represent a real opportunity or just a transfer of risk?
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