Salaries and Cost of Living  

Geography

Population

Rural and Urban Society

History

Religion

Tourist Sights

The Churches

If Chaves were a prosperous center with a dynamic work sector, there would not be any emigration.   Although this has decreased in recent years, opportunities for work have not increased dramatically.  Salaries as a whole are very low.  While the minimum salary stipulated by the government is around 350 Euros a month there are many young people in the shops and cafés who work eight hours a day or more and earn less—sometimes 250 Euros.  It is a take it or leave it situation. 

Doctors of course make much more—depending on whether they work exclusively for the public hospital or whether they have a private practice, while teachers earn between 600 Euros (starting salary) and 1200 Euros (end of career).  These salaries are paid 14 times and there is a one-month holiday.  To avoid paying high social security contributions (over 20%) and the fear of having to give “tenure” to a worker after three years, many employers have their workers give them green receipts (for independent workers who pay their own benefits). 

While salaries in Chaves are usually low  (an average might be 500 Euros a month but this would be only a guess) in the rural areas—60% of the concelho—many people are living on or below the poverty level.  The old farmers who for the most part had made no contribution to the social security system—and did not have the courage to emigrate—sometimes receive less than 100 Euros as a survival pension—surely the lowest in the EU, and a scandal.  Of course these people, if they can still work, have their land and their animals so their poverty is lessened to a degree.  Worse is to be poor in the towns where you cannot tend the soil and often have to pay rent.    

Cost of Living (December 2007) 

The cost of living, when compared with salaries is high.  When we compare it with other countries like Great Britain or Germany, it is low.  A new three- bedroom apartment costs on average 100,000 Euros.  The same apartment rents for 400 Euros.  Houses are more expensive to buy, but they are rarely rented.  Basic foodstuffs have gone down in price after the opening up of two large supermarkets, both of which offer low-priced goods imported from Spain and France.  Gasoline is, as in the rest of Europe, very expensive, costing 1.35 céntimos a liter at the major stations and 1.28 céntimos at the self-service hypermarket stations..  Labor though is quite cheap, especially mechanics, plumbers, and electricians—if you can get them, since there seems to be a shortage.  A housecleaner charges 4.00  an hour.  A man’s haircut costs around  5.00 euros, while a woman’s cut costs 10 euros.  The cinema in town, precarious though it might be, costs 4.00.  A cup of expresso is 00.60.  A meal in a traditional restaurant costs from 6.00 to 20.00.  A meal in the Chinese restaurant costs around 6.00 at lunch and around 10 euros in the evening..  Electricity and gas in a three-bedroom apartment run from 50.00 in the summer to 100.00 in the winter.  

      The Tourist Industry

Introduction to Economy  |  Agriculture  |   Industry