Before you ask, it is €505 a month and the percentage of workers on what many agree is barely enough to live on has risen by 73.6% between the Troika's arrival and the time its team left town.
The saddening figures are to be found deep within the latest bulletin from the Ministry of the Economy which reveals that the average monthly earnings for Portugal’s workers has fallen as many more get by on the minimum wage.
In October 2011, 11.3% of workers received the national minimum wage which then was just €485.
The largest increase was between April and October last year. In just seven months the percentage of workers earning the minimum wage rose from 13.2% to 19.6%.
With ever increasing water, electricity and other living costs, one in five workers must get by on the bare minimum which sadly is preferable to not having a job at all.
Portugal's overseers in Europe will be pleased that Portugal is keeping its costs of production low to encourage export competitiveness but the misery of many workers, unable to move to better jobs in a period of nationally high unemployment, may be expressed in their voting choices in the autumn election.
