ECLAC Secretary Says Mexico's Minimum Wage of $5 Per Day Is Below Poverty Level Aristegui Noticias
go to original August 6, 2014

Alicia Barcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), said that Mexico is the only country in the region where the minimum wage is below the "threshold of extreme poverty." The official said that, compared to Mexico, in Costa Rica the minimum wage is equivalent to three times the poverty line income.

In a taped message aired during the International Forum: Minimum Wages, Employment, Inequality and Economic Growth, organized by the Government of Federal District [Mexico City], she said, "Workers in the formal economy receiving the minimum wage are now below the poverty line. And those who receive two minimum wages have an income only minimally above the threshold of extreme poverty. This contrasts sharply with the experience of other countries. For example, in Costa Rica, the minimum wage is three times the equivalent of the poverty line income."

She stressed that the wage level that exists in our country - 67.52 pesos per day [US$5.09] in area "A", comprising Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, and 63.77 [US$4.80] in area "B" [the rest of the country] - impacts the structure of the social stratification of the country.

According to ECLAC, in Mexico almost 14% of workers are paid below the minimum wage, while 40% of the people who work in the formal economy receive two minimum wages "at most".

MVNote: Sixty percent of Mexican workers are in the informal, cash economy.

She also said that the loss of almost 70% of the real purchasing power of the minimum wage and its subsequent stagnation has been a cumulative process since 1980.

See the original at Mexico Voices

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