An analysis by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP-In) on “The current situation of women workers in Portugal” reveals that approximately 590,000 women hold precarious jobs, accounting for 26.8% of all female employees.
Data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) for the first quarter of 2025 indicates there were 2.548 million employed women, with 2.244 million working for an employer (88%).
The issue of job insecurity is more pronounced among younger workers, particularly those under 25, and foreign workers, with a 51% insecurity rate among the former and 35% among the latter, according to the document.
The report also highlights that “over 40% of employed women have completed higher education (41%),” while 27% have merely attained the ninth grade, demonstrating that “educational levels are higher than those of employed men, as only 28% of men have completed higher education compared to 37% at most with ninth-grade education.”
The CGTP-In remarks that “improvements in qualifications have not adequately translated into higher salaries, with many female workers continuing to perform low-skilled tasks due to the economy’s reliance on precarious and poorly paid labor.”
In terms of wages, the union’s survey shows that 60% of women earn up to one thousand euros monthly, with 18% receiving only the minimum wage.
It further points out that women’s average net salary is 17% lower than men’s, with disparities even greater among senior employees, and women in precarious positions earn up to 28% less than those with permanent contracts.
The CGTP-In states that “working hours in Portugal are both lengthy and highly deregulated,” affecting about 1.3 million female employees in the private and state business sectors.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for women stands at 7%, exceeding the 6.2% rate for men, with “only 45% of unemployed women receiving unemployment social protection.”
The average benefit amount is 642 euros for both men and women, barely above the poverty line.
Additionally, as of December 2024, “the average monthly old-age pension value across all regimes was around 666 euros, just above the poverty threshold.”
It highlights that “general regime pensions are slightly higher (average of 516 euros across all regimes and 524 euros in the general regime), but in all cases, they remain lower for women (around 62% of the amount received by men), due to their lower average salaries and shorter contributory careers.”
The CGTP-In notes that 17.6% of women are in poverty (compared to 15.4% of men), and 8.3% of employed women are poor, “demonstrating that employment alone is not sufficient to escape poverty.”
