Mexico’s minimum salary will increase by 20 percent in 2020. The minimum daily wage in this country will rise from 102.68 to 123.22 pesos ($US6.40).
This will represent the highest raise since 1976, when the minimum wage increased by 30.31 percent.
The hike was agreed upon by Mexico’s Comisión Nacional de Salarios Mínimos (Minimum Wage Commission) and was applauded by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who congratulated industry and business leaders for their “disposition” but stressed that even more needed to be done to reduce poverty in Mexico.
Finance Minister Arturo Herrera said he did not believe the hike would fuel inflation, which has been kept down to less than three percent in 2019.
The higher minimum wage that applies in a narrow stretch of territory along the border with the United States currently stands at 176.72 pesos a day, and will be increased by five percent next year to 185.56 pesos ($US9.80).
Just after Lopez Obrador assumed office in December 2018, the minimum wage increased from 88.36 to 102.68 pesos, a rise of 16 percent.
According to the National Statistics Institute (Inegi), almost 11 million salaried and “informal” workers in Mexico earn the minimum wage or less, equivalent to 3,080 pesos ($US162.70) monthly.
Although many workers earn more than the minimum salary, the annual hikes serve as a point of reference for increases to large numbers of low-income employees. However, employers are not obliged to give these better-paid workers a 20-percent pay raise.