Statutory notice period
The minimum notice an employer must give. Contracts and collective agreements can lengthen it and only rarely shorten it, and the tenure bands are where cross-border assumptions usually go wrong.
There is no employer notice for ordinary dismissal of an indefinite contract; dismissal needs a lawful ground. The ladder applies to collective dismissal and individual job-extinction, counted in calendar days.
| Service | Employer notice |
|---|---|
| Under 1 year | 15 calendar days |
| 1 to under 5 years | 30 calendar days |
| 5 to under 10 years | 60 calendar days |
| 10 years or more | 75 calendar days |
| Disciplinary dismissal (justa causa) | none |
Notice not given converts into pay for the days short. Statutory severance is due on the collective and job-extinction routes on top of the notice.
Source: Aviso prévio: prazos do artigo 363.º do Código do Trabalho, Doutor Finanças (statutory text quoted). Checked on 2026-07-27.
Minimum paid annual leave
The statutory floor for paid holiday. The counting basis matters as much as the number, since some laws count a six-day week and others count working days or calendar weeks.
22 working days per year.
Working days count Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. A separate holiday allowance, an extra month's pay, is due alongside the leave.
Source: Artigo 238.º – Duração do período de férias, O Informador Fiscal (statutory text). Checked on 2026-07-27.
Probation limit
The longest trial period the law allows an employer to agree, together with the notice that applies while it runs.
| Group | Maximum |
|---|---|
| General run of employees, indefinite contracts | 90 days |
| Technically complex, high-responsibility or specially qualified roles, positions of trust, first-job seekers and long-term unemployed | 180 days |
| Directors and senior managers | 240 days |
| Fixed-term of 6 months or more | 30 days |
| Fixed-term under 6 months | 15 days |
Notice while it runs: none while 60 days or fewer have run; the employer must give 7 days' notice after 60 days served and 30 days after 120.
Counted in calendar days from the first day of work; reducible or excludable by collective agreement or written agreement. Prior fixed-term work or an assessed internship in the same activity shortens or removes it.
A pending government reform proposes removing the first-job and long-term-unemployed tier; it had not passed parliament as of this check.
Source: Código do Trabalho, artigo 112.º (texto consolidado), Diário da República Eletrónico. Checked on 2026-07-27.
Employer social contributions
What the employer pays on top of gross salary into statutory schemes. Some countries charge a percentage of pay, others charge flat amounts, and a single headline rate hides caps, regional rules and industry-rated items.
Figures apply for 2026.
| Scheme | Rate, per cent of pay | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Social security (Taxa Social Única), employer share22.3 for non-profit employers; the employee pays a further 11. Temporary exemptions and reductions exist for first-job and long-term-unemployed hires. | 23.75 | the whole salary, with no ceiling |
Work-accident cover is a separate private-insurance premium rather than a social-security contribution, and the holiday and Christmas allowances add two further months of pay and contributions to the annual cost.
Source: Código dos Regimes Contributivos do Sistema Previdencial de Segurança Social, statutory text (mirror); Guia Fiscal 2026 – Segurança Social, PwC Portugal. Checked on 2026-07-27.