Brazil’s Senate approved a constitutional amendment on Oct. 14 to reduce the maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours and guarantee two days of paid weekly rest. The measure passed both rounds by 75 votes to one, with Sen. Hamilton Mourão casting the only opposing vote. It replaces the six-day-on, one-day-off schedule with a five-day workweek and sets a 14-month transition to the new limit.
The Senate kept the Chamber of Deputies’ approved text unchanged, so the amendment does not need to return to the lower house. It now awaits formal promulgation, which will start the transition period. Brazilian press reports have pointed to next week as a possible date, although no official date had been announced as of Oct. 15.
What will change for Brazilian workers?
The amendment, PEC 221/2019, targets the escala 6×1 system, under which employees work six days and take one day off. The new framework guarantees two paid rest days each week, preferably one on Sunday, without reducing salaries.
The transition will begin 60 days after promulgation, when the weekly limit falls to 42 hours. Twelve months later, it will drop to 40 hours. The full transition therefore lasts 14 months from promulgation.
The reform follows years of debate over working conditions in retail, hospitality and other services that operate throughout the week. Employees who now work six days may gain more time for family, education and leisure. Businesses will need to reorganize shifts, use overtime or hire additional staff to maintain operations within the new limit.
How does Brazil compare with Colombia and other countries?
Brazil’s eventual 40-hour limit will be lower than Colombia’s statutory maximum of 42 hours per week. Colombia completed its gradual reduction on July 15, 2026, under Law 2101 of 2021, which protects salaries and benefits as working hours fall.
The two systems differ in how they distribute working days. Colombian law allows a 42-hour week to be spread over five or six days by agreement between employers and employees, subject to applicable rest requirements. Brazil’s amendment establishes a five-day schedule with two days of paid weekly rest.
Chile is also moving toward a 40-hour workweek. Its law reduced the maximum from 45 to 44 hours in April 2024 and to 42 hours in April 2026, with a final reduction to 40 hours set for 2028. Brazil’s transition is shorter, although the legal frameworks are not identical.
Annual hours worked offer another perspective on how much time people spend at work, although they do not directly measure leisure time.
OECD figures for 2025 show 1,332 hours worked annually per employed person in Germany, 1,369 in Denmark and 1,436 in the Netherlands. The corresponding figures were 1,912 in Chile and 2,205 in Mexico. Colombia’s latest available OECD figure is for 2024, when employed people worked an average of 2,219 hours annually. The OECD cautions that differences in national measurement methods make these figures more useful for tracking trends over time than for definitive country rankings.
How much could the reform cost businesses?
Estimates of the economic impact differ. A February 2026 study by Brazil’s Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) estimated that reducing the workweek to 40 hours would raise the average hourly labor cost for formal-sector employees covered by the CLT labor framework by 7.8%. The study also estimated that the direct impact on operating costs would remain below 1% in major sectors such as industry and commerce.
The National Confederation of Industry (CNI) projected a higher aggregate cost. It estimated that maintaining current output could add between R$178.2 billion and R$267.2 billion (about US$35.5 billion to US$53.2 billion) a year, depending on whether employers pay overtime or hire additional workers. The CNI also projected that the reform could reduce Brazil’s gross domestic product by 0.7%, equivalent to R$76.9 billion. These are industry-group projections, not measured outcomes.
The two studies use different methods and measure different effects. Ipea’s estimate focuses on average hourly labor cost and operating costs, while the CNI calculates the potential aggregate cost of maintaining production.
For workers, the amendment guarantees additional weekly rest without a salary reduction. For employers, the main challenge will be maintaining staffing and output within the new limits while controlling labor costs.
The immediate next step is promulgation. Once Congress formally promulgates the amendment, the 60-day countdown will begin. The timing matters because the Oct. 25 presidential runoff is approaching, and the reform has become a prominent issue in the national political debate.