The conclusions are contained in the interim note dedicated to poverty in the work of the report “Portugal, Balanço Social”, by the Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE), Fundação “la Caixa” and BPI.

In 2019, 439,242 workers lived in poverty, which represents about 10% of the 4.5 million people who worked in Portugal that year.

The data predates the Covid-19 pandemic and the current financial crisis, which could increase poverty levels in the face of inflation, but the choice was intentional, explained to Lusa Susana Peralta, one of the authors, stating that the objective was to analyse a structural situation, thus reporting “to a time when the labour market was functioning normally”.

Regarding the results, the economist and professor at Nova SBE explained that poverty at work results from income, but not only.

“A person is poor if they do not have the resources to meet the normal expenses of the household”, said the economist, referring that poverty at work results, precisely, from the combination of income with the characterisation of the household.

In fact, the working poor belong mostly to households with children and, above all, to single-parent and large families, with 52% of workers in poverty not being poor if they lived alone.

“There will always be situations of poverty in which, despite the income being sufficient for the person alone not to be poor, there is a composition of their household that makes them fall into poverty because that income is not enough for the dependents of the household”, said the economist.

On the other hand, around 38% of the working poor received income compatible with the national minimum wage in 2019, but around a quarter received even less.