From the CISS annual meeting in Guatemala (second report)

In his intervention Lucio Santos from the Ministry of Social Protection in Brazil highlighted what the country has done to face the current global recession. Here the main actions: i) the minimum wage was increased (now is set at 260USD), which increased the incomes of social security beneficiaries; ii) the benefits of the unemployment insurance were extended and; iii) some efforts to extend coverage were put in place, such as the program MEI (individual microentrepreneur), which provides social security benefits to this group and charges 11% of the minimun wage as contribution, and the program to afíliate house workers (in exchange of a contribution which can be deducted from income taxes). As a consequence, the executive secretary adjoint Santos explained that while 800,000 jobs were destroyed during the last months of 2008 and first of 2009, now job creation reaches 1,000,000 employees.