Portuguese workers with higher education level than employers

Portuguese workers have a higher level of education than employers. A pordata study of worker profile in Portugal released this Thursday adds that about a quarter receives the equivalent of the national minimum wage.

The number of workers in Portugal ascends to 5.1 million and, of these, the most (34%) has at least higher education. This percentage compares to the 28% of employers who completed this level of education.

« In the context of the European Union, of the 23 countries with data available for 2024, Portugal is the country that has the highest proportion of employers without education or with basic education in total employers, » the study says.

The EU average is thus 16%, while in Portugal there is a value of 42%of employers with the lowest level of education, “percentage still significantly distant from Malta (34%), Spain (32%) or Italy (31%)”.

In 10 years (between 2014 and 2024), the study also reports, there were another 700,000 workers with higher education, which translates a rise of 61.8% compared to 2014, the year when those who had this level of education represented 25%.

Among the more than five million workers in Portugal are 302,000 of foreign nationality, mostly from countries outside the EU27. A number that almost tripled in 10 years, with another 197 thousand compared to 2014.

Regarding remuneration, the portrait on the profile of the Portuguese worker prepared by Pordata regarding May 1st, shows that the annual average salary in Portugal is the lowest 9th of the European Union countries. The average salary in Spain is 30% higher.

At the top of this list of average salaries, Luxembourg appears (81,064 euros/year), followed by Denmark (67,604 euros/year), being in Portugal of 22,293 euros. The value was calculated in order to take into account, in an adjusted, part -time workers.

According to Lusa agency, the study also shows that a quarter of workers receive the national minimum wage, which is the 10th lower of 22 countries with SMN (when measured in purchasing power) and taking into account the value in force in 2025.

“In two decades, Portugal was surpassed by Poland, Lithuania and Romania,” reads the same document that details that about one in four workers in Portugal (22.8%) had a base salary equivalent to SMN in 2022.

The proportion of workers receiving the SMN was that year higher among women (27.1%), young people (36.1%), those with education until basic education (32.9%) and foreign nationality workers (38.0%).