Legislation
Brazil – Gambling could help fund wage increase for nurses
By James - 14 July 2022
Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies has approved by 425 votes to 7 a Constitutional Amendment Proposal for a new nursing minimum wage. The rapporteur of the proposal (PEC 11/22) Deputy Carmen Zanotto said that the salary increase could be funded by the legalization of gambling. The Plenary still needs to analyze a modification introduced by political party Novo with voting resuming this week.
In the report, which recommends the approval of PEC 11/22, Deputy Zanotto highlighted that the proposal would give “more robustness and legal certainty” to Bill 2564/20, which sets the salary floor for nurses, nursing technicians, nursing assistants and midwives. The bill, approved by Congress, is still awaiting presidential approval.
The deputy stated that the salary increase could be financed by other measures such as payroll tax relief, oil royalties and state-owned company profits as well as gambling.
In April while chairing the working group on the bill Deputy Zanotto said that a portion of the revenue from the regulation of gambling bill, now in the Senate could be used to raise the much needed funds.
The idea of legalising gambling as a way to raise money for nurses and other heath professionals is gaining ground. Earlier this month the president of the Senate Rodrigo Pacheco said that gambling regulation could be used to pay for the newly imposed increases on the minimum wage for health care professionals. These sentiments were later echoed by the newly appointed rapporteur for Gambling Bill 442/91 in the senate Davi Alcolumbre who also came out in support of the move saying that it was inevitable that gambling would fund projects such as the one to raise the minimum wage and others like it in the future.
