How the CLT consignable margin works

The safest path on this site is: gross → 2026 net → 35% margin → Price principal. Skipping steps makes people confuse a R$1,190 instalment with a R$1,190 loan.

The 35% cap is in article 7 of MTE Ordinance 435/2025, which regulates Law 10.820/2003: the sum of payroll-loan instalments cannot exceed 35% of the job’s available pay. Available pay starts from earnings subject to social-security contributions and subtracts deductions subject to those contributions, the employee’s social-security contribution, withheld income tax and other compulsory deductions such as alimony.

Voluntary deductions the employee authorised, such as health-plan co-payments, are not subtracted (article 30, paragraph 3). So the net pay that reaches your account is not always equal to available pay. CalculaBR uses the figure you enter as an approximation; the official margin is set by the Crédito do Trabalhador platform using eSocial data.

• MTE Ordinance 435/2025 (consolidated text, Portuguese)
• Law 10.820/2003 (Planalto, Portuguese)

Suppose available pay of R$3,400.00 and an active payroll instalment of R$200.00. Total margin is 35% × 3,400 = R$1,190.00. After the existing instalment, R$990.00 a month remains.

At an illustrative 2.10% a month (not any bank’s offer), R$990.00 a month over 36 instalments supports a principal of about R$24,833.39. Total paid would be R$35,640.00, of which R$10,806.61 is interest. Over 60 instalments the maximum principal rises to about R$33,594.98, but the total paid reaches R$59,400.00. At 3.79% a month (the Central Bank’s August 2026 average), the same R$990 over 36 instalments supports R$19,275.99.

The first is treating margin as loan size: R$990 a month does not mean a R$990 loan, nor R$35,640 (990 × 36) of principal, because interest takes part of every instalment.

The second is thinking margin is fixed: if available pay falls in a month, the employer may withhold only part of the instalment and must tell the employee (article 30, paragraph 4). The third is stretching the term just to raise the amount released, without comparing total paid and CET.