Average salary in Portugal 2026: EUR 1,694 a month

What EUR 1,694 includes

The estimate covers about 4.9 million jobs held by employees who contribute to Social Security or the Caixa Geral de Aposentações. It is a mean and it is gross. Because it is total pay, it includes irregular items, so it runs above base salary. A Portuguese salary quoted in a job offer is usually a base monthly amount paid 14 times, which is a different number.

The release does not give a median, so this page does not either. We read the figures from the Government's summary of the INE data rather than INE's own release.

Average salary in Portugal by industry

Pay by industry and company size

Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning pays the most at EUR 3,476 a month; agriculture, forestry and fishing the least at EUR 1,086. Manufacturing averages EUR 1,593, below the national mean. The services split is telling: knowledge-intensive services average EUR 2,080 and less knowledge-intensive services EUR 1,422.

Company size matters almost as much as sector. Firms with up to 4 workers pay EUR 1,144 on average; those with 500 or more pay EUR 2,030. A small Portuguese employer and a large one are, in effect, different labor markets.

Average pay next to the minimum wage

Compare like with like. The 2026 minimum of EUR 920 is paid 14 times, or EUR 1,073.33 a month on a 12-payment basis. On that basis the 2025 average of EUR 1,694 is 1.58 times the minimum. Setting EUR 1,694 against EUR 920 directly would overstate the gap. The Portugal minimum wage page covers Madeira's rate and the employer cost at the floor.

What a hire at this level costs

Two ways to read the number, depending on how you set the salary:

• Total pay of EUR 1,694 a month across the year: 12 x 1,694 = EUR 20,328; employer social security at 23.75% is EUR 4,827.90; yearly cost EUR 25,155.90 (about $28,308).
• A base salary of EUR 1,694 paid 14 times: 14 x 1,694 = EUR 23,716; social security EUR 5,632.55; yearly cost EUR 29,348.55 (about $33,026).

The 23.75% employer rate comes from a secondary source, a Millennium BCP rate sheet last updated in 2015, because the Social Security site could not be read. The second case is what an offer letter usually means, and it costs 16.7% more than twelve times the monthly figure. Mandatory work-accident insurance comes on top. The employer cost index compares Portugal's rates with other countries.

Digital nomad visa income and hiring a Portuguese employee

Many people search for this figure while checking the income test for Portugal's digital nomad visa. We could not reach the official visa portal on October 18, 2026 to confirm the current threshold, so this page does not state one; check the Portuguese consular visa site before you apply.

If you are a company hiring someone who lives in Portugal, the person is a local employee, with 14 payments, social security and Portuguese leave rules. An employer of record handles that without a local entity. Providers' published fees span $99 (Native Teams, whose help center says EUR 99) to $699 (Oyster) a month per employee, checked October 16 and 18, 2026, and Deel lists $599.

See the Portugal EOR guide, our EOR rankings and EOR fees compared, or compare with the average salary in Spain.