Negotiating salary and benefits in Brazil

43493POSTS

6 years ago

Hello everyone,

Better job prospects in Brazil can most certainly be an incentive to leave your country of origin. Securing a contract with the right salary and benefits for you can be crucial to make your move successful.

Is salary and benefits negotiation regarded as common practice in Brazil? If yes, how should you go about negotiating your package (during the hiring process, on a monthly/yearly basis...)?

What do you expect to be included in terms of benefits in your package? Which benefits do you deem necessary in Brazil?

Is tax on the salary of an expat applicable in Brazil or do you have to turn to tax bodies in your country of origin to pay your taxes?

Do the exchange rates of currencies impact your salary as an expat?

Looking back, are there some changes you would have made during the negotiation of your salary and benefits package?

Thank you for sharing your experience,

Bhavna

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Texanbrazil ViP

2744POSTS

6 years ago

Brazil not the best for better paying jobs.
Not really able to help, but when we had an office in Rio, employees received same percent bonus as all offices based on positions.

1 member reacted to this post

Ron Pinto Serial expat

215POSTS

6 years ago

Are聽 you kidding?聽 Better salaries in Brazil?
Perhaps, if compared to certain other countries, Brazil could have better salaries, but in my experience, doing the same job, Brazilian salaries are a joke.
I was invited to join a consulting firm in Brazil and was informed that the daily rate would be 800.聽 I asked if Dollars or Reais and was informed that it was Reais.
I told them that I regretted to declined but in the US 800 Dollars/day was the lowest offer that I would receive, while having worked previously for up to 1,500 Dollars/day.
They were offended, as they thought the pay offered was excellent.
Nope, unless you are a politician, the pay in Brazil stinks.

2 members reacted to this post

GuestPoster204 Guest

0POSTS

6 years ago

Ron Pinto wrote:
Are聽 you kidding?聽 Better salaries in Brazil?
Perhaps, if compared to certain other countries, Brazil could have better salaries, but in my experience, doing the same job, Brazilian salaries are a joke.
I was invited to join a consulting firm in Brazil and was informed that the daily rate would be 800.聽 I asked if Dollars or Reais and was informed that it was Reais.
I told them that I regretted to declined but in the US 800 Dollars/day was the lowest offer that I would receive, while having worked previously for up to 1,500 Dollars/day.
They were offended, as they thought the pay offered was excellent.
Nope, unless you are a politician, the pay in Brazil stinks.

Ron,

Of all the countries in the world that pay the worst salaries, Brazil is number 5. Behind only to Russia,
Moldova, and Montenegro. If my memory doesn麓t fail me, Bangladesh would be the other country.

And I麓ve seen many from Bangladesh trying to immigrate here. What麓s the point? There麓s not much relief for economic well-being. If you go to all the bureaucratic hurdles to immigrate here, you might as well try maybe Germany, Switzerland or any of the Scandinavian countries...

I tried to hammer that home to some people in this forum and I received negatives when their beliefs
were contradicted. I live here with 26 years experience. They don麓t and just fantasize about the realities in Brazil. We are here to help and we should warn them beforehand so they can tailor their needs.

1 member reacted to this post

abthree Brazil Expert

6453POSTS

6 years ago

I couldn't agree more, and some of the points made above cannot be repeated often enough.

If you come to Brazil as an unskilled worker, the BEST you can hope for is a job that pays the minimum salary required by law, which provides a minimal lifestyle at best.聽 You'll only even get that if you're very lucky:聽 unemployment and underemployment are still high here, and there's a strong preference for hiring Brazilians for all but the very worst jobs.聽 You'll probably end up struggling every day in the informal economy, just to make ends meet.

Many low-wage jobs include an allowance for lunch, or provide a lunch.聽 If they require a certain mode of dress, they may also include a uniform, or a clothing allowance.聽 There might also be a transportation allowance.聽 If these aren't mentioned, you should ask about them; there aren't many other "benefits" available for negotiation.

If you have particular skills that are in demand, your best bet is to negotiate with a prospective employer BEFORE coming to Brazil.聽 Once you're in Brazil, you're largely at the employer's mercy.聽 If you can't come to an agreement and the employer walks away, you may need to have your credentials certified by a Brazilian public university before other employers will look at you:聽 a process that can be time-consuming, costly, and frustrating.

If you're an executive or professional negotiating with a multinational in your home country, push strongly to receive at least a portion of your compensation in a hard currency outside Brazil.聽 Inflation in Brazil is currently running at about 6.25% per year:聽 not high by Brazilian standards (and near the targets set by the Central Bank), but high enough to hurt a salary in reais.聽 More serious for expats, the Real has depreciated about 30% against the Dollar in the past year, and no Brazilian employer will have any interest in making that up for you.

2 members reacted to this post

Texanbrazil ViP

2744POSTS

6 years ago

Yep do not think this broadcast fits Brazil Bhavna. It now will have others hear the truth.

2 members reacted to this post

Ron Pinto Serial expat

215POSTS

6 years ago

Hey Robal, good to read from you.
Another BS that goes around is the announced inflation rates:
When I was there, waiting to return to California, my grocery shopping was simple, small and pretty much the same every week,聽 The cost between January and June 2019, at the P茫o de A莽ucar store I went to went up 60% in that period.聽 The inflation rate announced was 4%+ in the same period.
I wonder what do they measure to calculate inflation.

GuestPoster204 Guest

0POSTS

6 years ago

Ron Pinto wrote:
Hey Robal, good to read from you.
Another BS that goes around is the announced inflation rates:
When I was there, waiting to return to California, my grocery shopping was simple, small and pretty much the same every week,聽 The cost between January and June 2019, at the P茫o de A莽ucar store I went to went up 60% in that period.聽 The inflation rate announced was 4%+ in the same period.
I wonder what do they measure to calculate inflation.

Only the Almighty knows... I see changes in supermarket prices everyday - always up and they tell you around 4%? It could be regional but they麓re supposed to be statistically nationwide. I wonder what the
standard deviation is in Rio Grande do Sul. It麓s like Mickey Mouse economics. We might as well live in Disneyland...

GuestPoster204 Guest

0POSTS

6 years ago

Just in the periodic increases of gas prices alone more than cover that 4%. The chain reaction of increased food prices and industrialized goods etc as a result adds more onslaught to the population.