Brazil Phases In a 40-Hour Workweek and Second Paid Rest Day

Brazil’s Congress promulgated a constitutional amendment that lowers the weekly work-hour ceiling to 40 over 14 months and adds a second paid rest day, changing the country’s six-day work pattern.

Brazil’s previous constitutional ceiling was 44 hours a week. The amendment targets the “6x1” arrangement, in which employees work six days and take one day off. Collective agreements can set compensatory schedules averaging two paid rest days per week over a calendar month, as long as workers receive at least one day off in each workweek. Pay, including wage floors, cannot be reduced to implement the amendment.

The Chamber of Deputies passed the measure in two rounds on May 27, 2026, voting 472-22 in the first round and 461-19 in the second. The Senate approved it 75-1 in each of two rounds on Oct. 14, two days before promulgation.

About 14.7 million of Brazil’s 44.5 million formal CLT workers worked a 6x1 schedule. Separately, informal employment accounted for 37.5% of the employed population, or 38.8 million people, in the June-August 2026 quarter. The figures cover different populations; the informal-worker estimate is not a count of people on a 6x1 schedule.

A separate provision excludes private-sector workers who have a university degree and earn at least 2.5 times the maximum benefit under Brazil’s General Social Security Regime each month from the new limits on hours and timekeeping. Those rules can still apply if the employer chooses or a collective agreement requires them. The paid-rest requirement continues to apply to these employees.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at the promulgation, “No one wants a company to go bankrupt, but no one wants a worker to die for lack of rest either.” The amendment’s effects on hiring and informal work have not been established. The lack of sector-level data on prevailing schedules makes the change’s impact difficult to estimate.

The first stage takes effect Dec. 16, when the weekly ceiling falls to 42 hours and the second paid rest day begins. The 40-hour limit takes effect one year later.