Riviera Maya, Q.R. — President Claudia Sheinbaum says the New Year in Mexico will start with a 12 percent increase in the country’s minimum wage. She says more than 8.5 million laborers will benefit from the increase.
As of January 1, 2025, the general minimum wage across Mexico will be 278.80 pesos per day, which is around $13 USD. Along the border, Sheinbaum says the minimum wage will increase to 419.88 or approximately $20 USD per 8-hour work day.
“It will increase to 278.80 pesos per day in the General Minimum Wage Zone and in the Free Zone of the Northern Border to 419.88 pesos per day,” she announced Wednesday.
On average, the monthly salary of workers at a general level will be 8,364 pesos, while at the border it will be 12,596 pesos with more than 8.5 million workers benefiting from the salary increase.
“Mexican Humanism works, it gives results, it reduces poverty, inequalities, it improves the quality of life, the well-being of Mexicans and that is why it is the direction that continues in the country,” said Sheinbaum.
The current daily general minimum wage across Mexico is 248.93 pesos, which will be increased to 278.80 pesos per day, while the Free Zone of the Northern Border will go from 374.89 to 419.88 pesos per day, she explained.
“That means that next year, the minimum monthly wage, multiplying it by 30 days average per month, will be 8,364. It will go from 7,467 pesos per month ($369 USD) to 8,364 ($413 USD) and at the border to 12,596 pesos ($623 USD).
“It is more than three times what we have estimated for inflation next year,” she explained during the morning press conference.
During her Wednesday morning address to the public, she recalled that during the neoliberal period, Mexico was presumed abroad for having “cheap labor” which demonstrated the dehumanization of those governments.
However, with the arrival of the Fourth Transformation of public life, Mexican workers are recognized as the best in the world and the country as a nation with great natural resources and great cultural wealth.
“There was an impoverishment of workers in Mexico from 1992 to 2018, the minimum wage in real terms remained practically constant. Under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, it increased significantly. Our goal is to reach 2.5 times the basic food basket, that is with a minimum wage, a worker can have 2.5 the basic basket of necessities,” she said.
Sheinbaum says unemployment in the country is at its lowest level according to the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE) of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
“It is very good news for the people of Mexico with our motto always being ‘For the good of all, the poor first,’” she said.
Marath Bolaños López, the Secretary of Labor and Social Security, said the new minimum wage increases were approved December 3, by unanimous consensus of the Council of Representatives of the National Commission on Minimum Wages (Conasami) and will come into effect as of January 1, 2025 throughout the country.
