The amount paid to councilors depends on two main factors: the number of inhabitants of the municipality; and the salary of a state deputy in the state of this city.
There are 58.2 thousand councilors throughout Brazil, according to the latest survey by the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), carried out in 2020, when the last municipal elections were held.
But the amount they earn varies greatly.
A councilor in a Brazilian capital can earn, for example, a gross salary of over R$20,000.
Meanwhile, in a small municipality, a councilor may receive less than R$ 2,000.
This wage gap exists because of the rules established by Brazilian legislation for the remuneration of parliamentarians.
How much councilors in a given city earn depends on two main factors:
- The number of inhabitants of the municipality;
- The salary of a state representative in the state of this city.
This is because the law sets a limit on the remuneration of councillors in relation to how much a state deputy earns.
This ceiling varies from 20% to 75% of the MP’s salary, and the percentage increases based on the number of inhabitants of a city.
But the amount paid is defined in practice by the City Councils, that is, the councilors themselves decide how much to earn.
In São Paulo, the country’s largest city, with 11.4 million inhabitants, the gross salary of each of the 55 councilors is R$ 18,991.68, according to the municipality’s Transparency Portal.
In El Salvador, which has 2.4 million inhabitants, 43 councilors and the highest salary in Brazil for this position, is R$ 24,759.74 per month, according to the Transparency Portal.
In Delfim Moreira, a city of 8,000 inhabitants in the interior of Minas Gerais, a councilor receives a minimum wage, according to data from the Court of Auditors of Minas Gerais.
How are councilors’ salaries defined?
The Federal Constitution establishes that the salaries of those who hold public positions, functions and jobs, such as politicians, cannot exceed the monthly earnings of the ministers of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), which currently corresponds to R$ 44,000.
This is the so-called constitutional ceiling, which also applies to ministers of state, the vice president and the president.
The Constitution also establishes the proportionality between the amounts paid to politicians with an active mandate at each cascading level, from the highest to the lowest.
Therefore, the salaries of members of Congress – senators and federal deputies – can reach the constitutional ceiling at most.
At the next level, in state legislatures, deputies can receive a maximum of 75% of the amount paid to federal deputies.
In turn, the salary of a state deputy determines the minimum and maximum that a councilor can receive.
The minimum is 3% of the amount paid to a state deputy. The maximum varies depending on the size of the city’s population:
- 20% of the salary of a state deputy in cities with up to 10 thousand inhabitants;
- 30% in cities with more than 10,000 and up to 50,000 inhabitants;
- 40% in cities with more than 50,000 and up to 100,000 inhabitants;
- 50% in cities with more than 100,000 and up to 300,000 inhabitants;
- 60% in cities with more than 300,000 and up to 500,000 inhabitants;
- 75% in cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants.
To get an idea of what this means in concrete terms, in the state of São Paulo, the most populous in the country, where state deputies currently receive R$ 33,006.39, a councilor can receive:
- In a city of up to 10,000 inhabitants: up to R$6,601.28;
- In cities with more than 10 thousand and up to 50 thousand inhabitants: up to R$ 9,901.92;
- In cities with more than 50 thousand and up to 100 thousand inhabitants: up to R$ 13,202.56;
- In cities with more than 100 thousand and up to 300 thousand inhabitants: up to R$ 16,503.20;
- In cities with more than 300 thousand and up to 500 thousand inhabitants: up to R$ 19,803.83;
- In cities with more than 500 thousand inhabitants: up to R$24,754.79.
“Within these criteria [de tamanho do município e proporção do salário de um deputado estadual]the legislation establishes that the Chambers can define the salaries, that is, that the councilors themselves define their salaries”, summarizes Sérgio Simoni, professor at the Department of Political Sciences of the University of São Paulo (USP).
Lawyer André y Castro Camillo, legal advisor to the Union of Councilors of Brazil (UVB), points out that municipalities of similar size can have different salaries, because municipalities have “constitutionally granted legislative, economic and administrative autonomy.”
The final amount will have to follow standards set for councilor subsidies, based on the size of the city and the salaries of state lawmakers.
The Federal Constitution also establishes that the total amount of resources allocated to councillors’ salaries cannot exceed 5% of the municipal revenues of the previous year.
Furthermore, each municipality cannot allocate more than 70% of its revenue to salaries, which in this case include all public employees and parliamentarians.
The number of inhabitants also determines the number of councilors in each city.
The law allows up to 9 councilors in cities with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants.
The maximum number is 55 councilors in cities with more than 8 million inhabitants.
It is possible, according to the Constitution, for a councilor to combine a private role with a public role.
But this other activity must be compatible so that the public function is not harmed. In other words, the councilor cannot fail to fulfill his duties as a parliamentarian to the detriment of another occupation.
Each case must be evaluated, because the functions of a councilor may vary depending on the Internal Regulations of each Municipal Chamber, emphasizes the Court of Accounts of Minas Gerais.
How to Find Out Your City Councilor’s Salary
The legislation states that all cities are required to make public spending transparent, including the salaries of local parliamentarians.
This should be done primarily through the Transparency Portal of each municipality.
You can then go to the City Council website and search for information that includes local MPs’ subsidies.
But this is not exactly what happens in practice in all municipalities.
In several cities, voters are having trouble finding the salary paid to the municipal deputy on the portal.
“The Law on Access to Information establishes that access to information, such as salaries, must be easy and broad for voters. But, in practice, there are difficulties and failure to meet these standards,” says lawyer André y Castro Camillo, of UVB.
“Publishing these values is a constitutional provision,” he adds.
The lawyer specifies that voters can contact the Municipality’s Ombudsman, via telephone and email available on the sites, if they encounter difficulties with the site, and contest the gross value of the salaries of parliamentarians, since it is a public expense.
If the voter does not receive adequate information or does not detect any irregularities, the lawyer explains, he or she can file a complaint with the supervisory bodies, such as the State Audit Office (TCE), and denounce the lack of transparency in responding to the request for information.
Source: Terra
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