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AbstractLiving wage (LW) is a concept that goes beyond that of national minimum wage (NMW), since it implies income adequacy to the wage earners and to his/her family members. It is coherent with the principle related to wages of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) namely the right of workers to fair wages, and the duty to ensure adequate minimum wages providing the satisfaction of the worker needs and of his/her family, which originated a proposal of the European Commission for a Directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union. This article discusses the possibility of implementation of a LW policy in Portugal, a country with low average and median wages, a generous NMW relative to average and median wage, high earnings inequality and a polarised labour market. To be defensible, this policy should reach household income adequacy, be feasible regarding the labour and fiscal costs, and be socially acceptable regarding the change of earnings distribution. The discussion of this policy is made using EU‐SILC data and data from interviews with social partners involved in the national level social dialogue. We quantify and qualify some of the trade‐offs, simulating different values for core policy variables, centred on the worker as a wage earner, as a household member and as a citizen with social rights and fiscal duties, supported on an adequate normative estimation of a consensual Minimum Income Standard (MIS) for the Portuguese households.

COVID-19 and the corresponding economic lockdown and income loss for large segments of population was something unexpected for all European countries, and their welfare systems were not prepared to protect their citizens from such threats. Social resilience is becoming used in disaster risk analysis, and preferred to that of vulnerability, to refer the ability of the social entities to respond to such challenges, enabling them to cope and adjust to adverse events. It has been more recently used in the context of the European Union (EU) about COVID-19, regarding the creation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, intended to mitigate the economic and social impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The global nature of this pandemic makes possible and relevant a deeper understanding of social resilience at different levels of analysis: international, national, local and individual/household levels. This article aims to contribute to this by proposing a set of indicators of social resilience in face of COVID-19, supported in a theoretical framework developed herein, and comparing the performance of a selection of EU countries with distinct welfare system configurations, with different roles played by the government, the market, the social organizations and the families. Using comparable statistical data at macro level and data concerning the responses of government to the economic and social effects of the pandemic, we produce a synthetic index of social resilience, combining resilience on coping and resilience on adapting. We relate the differences found in coping and adapting with the welfare system configurations of these countries. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

AbstractThis paper presents a data series on social expenditure in Portugal for the period 1938-2003. The series was built with the aim of identifying and characterizing the most significant phases in the process leading up to the current welfare state system in this country. The establishment of a social insurance (Previdência) in 1935 was one of the founding pillars of theEstado Novo(New State). Reforms to Social Welfare (Previdência Social) in 1962, while in the full throes of the New State, policy measures taken after the revolution of 1974 and a new orientation for social policy following the accession of Portugal to the European Economic Community (EEC) in the mid-1980s brought about significant transformations in the institutional organizational structure that provided welfare and conferred social rights in Portugal. To understand this process, knowledge is needed of the transformations to the institutional structures governing the organizations that provided welfare, welfare coverage in terms of the type of benefit and the population entitled to social risk protection, the magnitude of spending on benefits associated with these risks, as well as how benefits were allocated between the institutions. We built a data series for the period 1938-1980, which can then be matched to data already published in the OECD Social Expenditure Database from 1980 onwards. As a result, a consistent series for social expenditure from 1938 to 2003 was obtained. The methodology used to create the series enabled us to measure the impact of the variation in population coverage for social risks and the average generosity of benefits on the relative share of social expenditure in GDP. We present an interpretive reading for the full period, covering the New State and the Democracy from 1974, of the process of building the welfare state in Portugal.

This paper presents a data series on social expenditure in Portugal for the period 1938-2003. The series was built with the aim of identifying and characterizing the most significant phases in the process leading up to the current welfare state system in this country. The establishment of a social insurance (Prevideˆncia) in 1935 was one of the founding pillars of the Estado Novo (New State). Reforms to Social Welfare (Prevideˆncia Social) in 1962, while in the full throes of the New State, policy measures taken after the revolution of 1974 and a new orientation for social policy following the accession of Portugal to the European Economic Community (EEC) in the mid-1980s brought about significant transformations in the institutional organizational structure that provided welfare and conferred social rights in Portugal. To understand this process, knowledge is needed of the transfor mations to the institutional structures governing the organizations that provided welfare, welfare coverage in terms of the type of benefit and the population entitled to social risk protection, the magnitude of spending on benefits associated with these risks, as well as how benefits were allocated between the institutions. We built a data series for the period 1938-1980, which can then be matched to data already published in the OECD Social Expenditure Database from 1980 onwards. As a result, a consistent series for social expenditure from 1938 to 2003 was obtained. The methodology used to create the series enabled us to measure the impact of the variation in population coverage for social risks and the average generosity of benefits on the relative share of social expenditure in GDP. We present an interpretive reading for the full period, covering the New State and the Democracy from 1974, of the process of building the welfare state in Portugal. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This paper presents a data series on social expenditure in Portugal for the period 1938-2003. The series was built with the aim of identifying and characterizing the most significant phases in the process leading up to the current welfare state system in this country. The establishment of a social insurance (Prevideˆncia) in 1935 was one of the founding pillars of the Estado Novo (New State). Reforms to Social Welfare (Prevideˆncia Social) in 1962, while in the full throes of the New State, policy measures taken after the revolution of 1974 and a new orientation for social policy following the accession of Portugal to the European Economic Community (EEC) in the mid-1980s brought about significant transformations in the institutional organizational structure that provided welfare and conferred social rights in Portugal. To understand this process, knowledge is needed of the transformations to the institutional structures governing the organizations that provided welfare, welfare coverage in terms of the type of benefit and the population entitled to social risk protection, the magnitude of spending on benefits associated with these risks, as well as how benefits were allocated between the institutions. We built a data series for the period 1938-1980, which can then be matched to data already published in the OECD Social Expenditure Database from 1980 onwards. As a result, a consistent series for social expenditure from 1938 to 2003 was obtained. The methodology used to create the series enabled us to measure the impact of the variation in population coverage for social risks and the average generosity of benefits on the relative share of social expenditure in GDP. We present an interpretive reading for the full period, covering the New State and the Democracy from 1974, of the process of building the welfare state in Portugal. ; Este artículo presenta una serie de datos acerca del gasto social en Portugal para el periodo 1938-2003. La serie ha sido construida con el objeto de identificar y caracterizar las fases principales del proceso que ha conducido al actual desarrollo del estado del bienestar en este parís. El establecimiento de un seguro social (Previdência) en 1935 fue uno de los pilares fundamentales del Estado Novo. Las reformas de la Previdência Social en 1962, mientras el régimen agonizaba, las medidas políticas que siguieron a la revolución de 1974 y una nueva orientación hacia la política social después del ingreso de Portugal a la CEE a mediados de la década de 1980 produjeron importantes transformaciones en la estructura institucional provisora de bienestar y derechos sociales en Portugal. Para comprender este proceso es necesario conocer las transformaciones de dicha estructura institucional que controla las organizaciones provisoras de bienestar, las coberturas de bienestar en términos de los tipos de beneficios sociales y la poblacıón con derecho a recibir prestaciones a causa del riesgo de exclusión, la magnitud del gasto en prestaciones asociadas a dicho riesgo, y la forma en que las prestaciones se distribuyen entre las instituciones correspondientes. Hemos construido una serie de datos para el periodo 1938-1980 que puede ser continuada con datos ya publicados desde 1980 en la base de datos de gasto social de la OCDE. Hemos obtenido así una serie de gasto social consistente entre 1938 y 2003. La metodología utilizada para crear la serie ha permitido medir el impacto de los cambios en la población cubierta por riesgo social y la generosidad media de las prestaciones en el porcentaje relativo de gasto social dentro del PIB. Presentamos una interpretación para este periodo, que cubre el Estado Novo y la fase democrática desde 1974, del proceso de construcción del estado del bienestar en Portugal. ; This paper presents some results from the research project «Contributions to the History of the Welfare State in Portugal during the New State», POCTI/HAR/48067/2002, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT).

AbstractThe Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) was created in Portugal by a centre‐left Socialist Party government in 1996, as the most important constitutive part of a 'new generation of active social policies,' which completed the existence in Portugal of a universal system of guaranteed income. Its transformation into a Social Integration Income (SII) in 2003 and its retrenchment in the period of the Great Recession and troika austerity (2011–2015) has reduced the scope of this policy measure as a universal safety net policy. This article examines the context and the major drivers for the creation and for the policy changes that occurred in the GMI/SII. Looking at the political debates and the changes in this policy measure along this period, we argue that the major reforms introduced since its creation reflect ideological cleavages within the political arena. Considering the very low share in total government current expenditure of GMI/SII, this can explain the social policy selective retreat associated to the changes introduced in this policy measure by the centre‐right coalition in government, in the latest period of cost containment of social policy in Portugal, leading to a great decrease in the number of beneficiaries and to an increase of its inadequacy.

This article discusses whether transition to retirement may be associated with a greater probability of becoming poor. Having recourse to the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) for Portugal, the analysis is focused on a sample of individuals who retired in the period 1994-2001. Longitudinal analysis focuses upon income changes upon entering retirement. We relate the dynamics of household income changes for people who retire to personal and household characteristics. A multivariate probit model of the probability of low income at the time of retirement, conditional on not having a low income prior to retirement, is then put forward.

Vários estudos realizados em Portugal têm demonstrado que a pobreza não se distribui uniformemente no território, apontando para uma maior incidência de pobreza nas áreas rurais do que nas áreas urbanas. A grande heterogeneidade dos contextos territoriais torna, no entanto, insuficiente a distinção rural-urbano para o estudo da pobreza rural e para a identificação das características estruturais específicas da localização rural que podem explicar as diferenças encontradas. Para tal, é necessária uma caracterização mais detalhada das unidades territoriais, orientada para os aspectos teóricos e empiricamente verificados da influência da localização rural sobre a pobreza. Este artigo apresenta o desenvolvimento de quatro índices de caracterização do território que procuram ir ao encontro dessa necessidade: o índice de ruralidade, o índice de acessibilidade e dois índices de caracterização do contexto económico.

Research into minimum income standards and reference budgets around the world is compared in this illuminating collection from leading academics in the field. From countries with long established research traditions to places where it is relatively new, contributors set out the different aims and objectives of investigations into the minimum needs and requirements of populations, and the historical contexts, theoretical frameworks and methodological issues that lie behind each approach. For policymakers, practitioners and social policy and poverty academics, this essential review of learnings to date and future prospects for research is all the more relevant in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, testing health and social protection systems around the globe