The Guadalajara Reporter

Pay for Mexico's lowest earners to rise

Mexico’s daily minimum wage was increased by 3.9 percent January 1 – exactly the same figure as last year.

This rise means the daily minimum wage in Mexico’s Zone A – which now includes the Guadalajara metropolitan zone, along with Mexico City, Monterrey, Acapulco and much of northern Mexico – will be 67.29 pesos.

The increase represents a rise of 2.53 pesos a day – less that half the price of a single bus fare in the Guadalajara metropolitan area.

The country is now split into just two different zones, having previously been divided into three. The rest of Jalisco is listed in Zone B, which will now have a minimum wage of 63.77 pesos per day.

The National Minimum Wage commission (Conasami) announced the changes December 17. Mexican Labor Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida said the rise is higher than the anticipated inflation rate for 2014.

In reality, most employers in Mexico pay their full-time workers more than the minimum wage.  Nonetheless, businesses usually calculate the size of beginning-of-year salary hikes on the increase in the minimum wage.

A recent study carried out by the University of Guadalajara (UdeG) shows that 60 percent of families in Jalisco make less than 5,800 pesos per month (roughly equivalent to three minimum wages). With basic expenses such as housing, transportation, clothing and education factored in, the study determined that the average family of four needs a monthly income of at least 15,000 pesos a month, eight times the minimum wage.