Salary calculator glossary
The terms used in the Brazilian and Portuguese net salary calculators and on the minimum wage pages, defined in one or two sentences.
- Gross salary
- The figure agreed in the contract, before any deduction. It is the number on the employment record and the starting point of every payroll calculation.
- Net salary
- What is left after the compulsory deductions. It stays an estimate until the deductions written into your own contract are added, such as health cover, commuting allowances, alimony and advances.
- Effective rate
- How much the deduction represents of the whole salary, as a percentage. It is always lower than the top bracket rate, because the lower slices were charged at lower rates.
- Marginal rate
- The rate that applies to the next unit of gross pay, that is, the rate of the bracket the salary sits in. It answers how much of a pay rise you actually keep.
- Progressive INSS
- Since 2020 the Brazilian employee contribution is worked out slice by slice: each part of the salary is charged at the rate of its own band, like income tax. That is why the effective rate stays below the highest band reached.
- Lei nº 8.212/1991 — custeio da Previdência Social
- Dependant allowance
- A fixed amount per dependant subtracted from the base before the monthly income tax is worked out. It is not cash back: it shrinks the base, so the gain depends on your marginal rate.
- Receita Federal — tabelas do imposto de renda
- Contribution ceiling
- The highest salary on which the employee pays social security. Above it the deduction stops growing in money terms, so the effective rate starts falling as the salary rises.
- Lei nº 8.212/1991 — custeio da Previdência Social
- IRS (Portugal)
- Portuguese personal income tax. On the monthly payslip it appears as withholding at source, worked out from a table of rates and abatements, with the final reckoning made in the annual return.
- Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (Portugal) — retenção na fonte de IRS
- TSU
- The single social contribution that funds Portuguese social security, split between worker and employer. The worker share is withheld at a flat rate, with no bands and no ceiling.
- Segurança Social (Portugal) — taxa contributiva do regime geral
- Holiday and Christmas subsidies
- In Portugal, two extra annual payments on top of the twelve monthly salaries, which is why people speak of fourteen months. The yearly figure for a Portuguese salary is therefore not simply twelve times the monthly one.
- Statutory minimum wage
- The pay floor set by law, which no contract may undercut. Each country sets it by the hour, by the day or by the month, and the number of annual payments differs from country to country.