The Trans Woman Behind Brazil’s Fight for a Shorter Working Week

When Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted in May 2026 to reduce the maximum working week to 40 hours and guarantee two days of rest, the news travelled far beyond Latin America. Less visible was the story of Erika Hilton, a Black transgender politician whose journey from social exclusion to Congress helped bring the fight against the six-day working week to the centre of national debate.

Born in 1992 in Franco da Rocha, near São Paulo, Hilton left home as a teenager following conflicts with her family over her gender identity. She spent time living on the streets before reconnecting with her family, returning to education and studying pedagogy. Her early activism included campaigns for transgender people's access to education and public services.

Her political career grew out of grassroots activism. In 2018, she was elected as part of Bancada Ativista, a collective mandate in São Paulo’s state legislature. In 2020, she won a seat on São Paulo’s city council, becoming its most-voted candidate that year. Two years later, she was elected to Brazil’s federal Chamber of Deputies, where she became one of the country’s most prominent transgender politicians.

Hilton also became a vocal opponent of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s conservative politics. In 2022, she filed a complaint with Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court over Bolsonaro’s remarks about gender identity and LGBTQ+ people, arguing that they were discriminatory. Her confrontation with the former president reflected a wider political struggle over transgender rights in Brazil.

In February 2025, Hilton formally introduced Constitutional Amendment Proposal PEC 8/25 to end the escala 6x1 a schedule under which employees work six days and receive one day off. Her proposal called for a four-day, 36-hour working week. The campaign drew support from Vida Além do Trabalho (Life Beyond Work), a movement demanding more time for rest and life outside employment. Hilton helped bring the demand into Congress, organised public debate and pushed for support across party lines.

The proposal was later incorporated into a broader legislative process. The version approved by the lower house on 27 May 2026 provided for a maximum 40-hour working week, two days of rest and no reduction in pay, a compromise different from Hilton’s original four-day proposal. The measure still required Senate approval to become law.

Her story is also a reminder that trans women are not only fighting for the right to exist safely, but are shaping the societies they live in. Hilton entered politics after experiencing the exclusion that many trans people know firsthand. Today, she is helping shape a debate about something fundamental to everyone: the right to have a life beyond work.

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