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Around 4.56 million workers are expected to lose the PIS/Pasep salary bonus benefit by 2030 because the government adjusts the salary limit only by inflation while the minimum wage increases with real gains, a change that has already excluded 559,000 workers this year and will reduce the cap to one and a half minimum wages.
Millions of Brazilian workers who receive the PIS/Pasep salary bonus every year are about to lose the benefit without understanding why. The federal government has changed the way the income limit for eligibility is adjusted: until now, the cap was two minimum wages and followed the annual adjustments of the national floor, but the new rule determines that this limit will now only be adjusted by inflation, while the minimum wage continues to receive real gains above inflation. In practice, this means that the PIS/Pasep access cap grows less than salaries, and workers who receive small increases will exceed the limit without their purchasing power having significantly improved.
The impact is already measurable. This year alone, approximately 559,000 workers lost access to the bonus, and the Ministry of Labor’s projection indicates that the total number of excluded individuals will reach 4.56 million by 2030, as the difference between the minimum wage adjustment and the inflationary correction of the cap accumulates year after year. The change primarily affects low and middle-income formal workers who currently still fall within the two-minimum-wage limit but who, with any salary increase above inflation, will be pushed out of the eligibility range.
How PIS/Pasep worked before the change affecting workers
The previous system was straightforward and predictable. To receive the salary bonus, workers had to meet three criteria: have received up to two minimum wages in the base year, have worked at least 30 days with a formal contract, and have been registered with PIS/Pasep for at least five years. As the cap followed the minimum wage adjustment, with each increase in the floor, the eligibility limit rose proportionally, ensuring that low-income workers remained within the access range regardless of annual adjustments.
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Predictability was the main advantage of this model for workers. Those earning below two minimum wages knew they would remain eligible as long as they did not receive a promotion or job change that significantly increased their salary, and the bonus served as a predictable income supplement that low-income families incorporated into their annual financial planning. With the change in the adjustment rule, this predictability has disappeared because the cap now moves at a different speed than the minimum wage, and workers who do not follow the details of the legislation may be surprised to discover that they have lost the right without having changed jobs or received a promotion.
Why the government decided to change the rules that benefited workers
The official justification is fiscal. The federal government argues that the change aims to ensure the sustainability of the FAT (Worker Support Fund), responsible for paying the salary bonus, and that concentrating the benefit on the lowest-income segment of the population is a way to balance public accounts without eliminating the program entirely. The logic is that by gradually reducing the number of beneficiaries, the FAT can maintain payments for those most in need instead of distributing amounts to workers who, in the government’s assessment, already have sufficient income to forgo the supplement.
The stated goal is for the eligibility cap to fall until it reaches approximately one and a half minimum wages. When this level is reached, workers earning between one and a half and two minimum wages will have been entirely excluded from PIS/Pasep, a group that today represents millions of people and would lose a benefit that for many families makes a difference in their annual budget. For the government, the savings generated justify the restriction; for affected workers, the loss is concrete and comes without compensation.
What happens to workers who receive small increases
The trap of the new rule is that workers can lose PIS/Pasep due to adjustments that barely cover inflation. If the minimum wage increases by 6% and the bonus ceiling is adjusted by 4% (only inflation), the 2% difference accumulates year after year, and workers who are close to the limit are pushed out of eligibility without their salaries having increased enough in real terms to offset the loss of the benefit. The result is that workers become nominally richer in their paychecks but financially the same or worse when inflation is discounted and the loss of the bonus is added.
The irony is that the mechanism punishes exactly what should be positive: a salary increase. Workers who receive modest promotions, collective adjustments negotiated by unions, or simply an increase in their category’s floor can exceed the PIS/Pasep ceiling without the salary improvement compensating for the amount they will no longer receive as a bonus. For those earning around two minimum wages, the salary bonus can represent up to an entire additional salary per year depending on the time worked, a loss that no 2% or 3% adjustment covers.
PIS/Pasep 2026 Calendar for Workers Still Eligible
Salary bonus payments in 2026, referring to the base year 2024, follow a schedule based on workers’ birth months. Those born in January receive starting February 15, those born in February starting March 15, those born in March and April starting April 15, those born in May and June starting May 15, those born in July and August starting June 15, those born in September and October starting July 15, and those born in November and December starting August 15. Workers who still meet the criteria should check their status through the Carteira de Trabalho Digital app or the gov.br portal.
The bonus amount is proportional to the number of months worked in the base year. Those who worked all 12 months of 2024 with a formal contract receive the full amount, equivalent to one minimum wage, while those who worked for a shorter period receive proportionally. Experts recommend that workers monitor their situation and verify if they still meet the updated criteria, especially those who received any type of salary increase in 2024 that may have exceeded the new ceiling adjusted only by inflation.
What Workers Should Do Regarding the PIS/Pasep Change
The first action is to verify if the right to the bonus still exists. The consultation can be done through the Carteira de Trabalho Digital app or directly at Caixa Econômica Federal branches (for PIS) and Banco do Brasil (for Pasep), and workers who discover they have been excluded from the benefit should understand that the loss is not due to a registration error, but to the change in the rule for correcting the income ceiling. There is no individual appeal that reverses the exclusion: as long as the legislation maintains the correction only by inflation, workers who exceeded the limit will remain outside the program.
For those who still receive it, the guidance is to plan considering that the benefit may not exist in the coming years. Workers who are close to the ceiling should be aware that any adjustment may be the last before exclusion, and incorporating the bonus amount into the family budget as permanent income is a risk that the new rule makes increasingly greater. PIS/Pasep as a universal program for workers earning up to two minimum wages is in a shrinking process, and those who depend on it need to prepare for the moment when the inflationary correction of the ceiling finally reaches and surpasses their salary.
And you, have you checked if you are still entitled to PIS/Pasep this year? Do you think it’s fair that salary adjustments take away the bonus from low-wage earners? Leave your opinion in the comments.
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