Brazil has taken a historic step towards reshaping the lives of tens of millions of workers. On 14 October 2026, the country's Senate overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that cuts the maximum working week from 44 to 40 hours — without any reduction in pay — just ten days before a fiercely contested presidential runoff.
The amendment, known as PEC 221/2019, passed in two consecutive rounds of voting by 75 votes to 1, with only former vice-president Hamilton Mourão voting against. The measure now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is expected to promulgate it next week, completing a legislative journey that began in 2019 and cleared the Chamber of Deputies in May.
At its heart, the reform kills off Brazil's notorious six-day "6x1" schedule — six working days followed by a single day of rest — under which some 16 million retail, restaurant and hospitality workers currently labour. In its place comes a five-day week with two paid rest days, preferably including a Sunday. Analysts estimate between 26.8 million and 37 million workers will benefit, with the gains concentrated among lower-paid and less-educated employees.
What exactly changes, and when
The amendment is written into the constitution, which gives it unusual permanence: future governments cannot easily unwind it. The transition will be phased. Sixty days after promulgation, the maximum week falls to 42 hours; fourteen months later, it drops to the full 40-hour limit. Pay must remain unchanged throughout.
Alongside the shorter week, the amendment mandates two paid rest days per week for all workers — preferably including a Sunday — replacing the current norm in which millions of service-sector employees get just one. For a cashier in São Paulo or a waiter in Recife currently working six days a week, the change means a full extra day of life returned, every week, for the rest of their working lives.
There is one notable carve-out. University-educated workers earning more than 2.5 times the ceiling of the national social security system (INSS) — roughly R$21,188 a month — are excluded from the new protections. The reform is aimed squarely at the working class rather than the professional elite, a design choice its supporters say targets the benefit where it is most needed.
For readers wondering what those figures mean in their own currency, Brazil's minimum wage and salary thresholds can be checked against current rates using the free currency converter, which converts between the Brazilian real and the US dollar and other major currencies.
A movement born on TikTok
Few labour reforms in modern history have such an unlikely origin story. The campaign to end the 6x1 schedule began as "Vida Além do Trabalho" — Life Beyond Work — a TikTok movement founded by a pharmacy assistant who filmed herself describing the exhaustion of working six days a week for wages that barely covered the basics. The videos struck a nerve, drawing millions of views and snowballing into street demonstrations, union backing and, eventually, political sponsorship.
That a constitutional amendment can be traced to a single worker's social-media account says something profound about how political power moves in 2026. Traditional unions were caught off guard by the speed of the campaign; by the time they lent their weight to it, the movement had already set the terms of the debate. Politicians who ignored it did so at their peril — as the final vote, 75 to 1, amply demonstrates.
Ten days before the runoff
The timing of the vote is impossible to separate from Brazil's looming presidential runoff on 25 October 2026, which pits the incumbent Lula, of the Workers' Party, against far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who emerged from the first round in the lead.
Lula has thrown his full weight behind the amendment. "Today is a day to celebrate a historic achievement for millions of workers," he said, describing the end of the 6x1 schedule as giving Brazilians "more time to live, rest, be with family, watch your children grow up, look after yourself and enjoy life." For a president whose political identity was forged in the labour movement, the reform is both a legacy-defining achievement and a powerful closing argument to working-class voters.
The politics produced an awkward reversal on the other side. Flávio Bolsonaro, who had previously opposed the measure, changed course mid-week and voted in favour — remotely — arguing that most workers want the 6x1 schedule gone. Lula dismissed the switch as "electoral opportunism," and the episode has become one of the defining set-pieces of the runoff campaign: a far-right candidate endorsing a landmark labour reform days before facing the union-backed incumbent.
Business warns of costs
Not everyone is celebrating. Business groups, particularly those representing micro and small enterprises, warn that the reform will raise labour costs at a difficult moment, forcing some employers to cut hiring, reduce hours informally, or push work into the grey economy. Restaurants, bars and small retailers — the sectors most exposed to the 6x1 schedule — argue that thin margins leave little room to absorb a four-hour weekly cut per employee without raising prices or shedding jobs.
