Living Wage in Mexico Insufficient to Buy 'Basic Basket of Goods' for One Person Enrique Cardenas Sanchez - EconoTimes
go to original November 21, 2016

How Trump's Border Wall Would Create Jobs in Mexico (Yahoo Finance)

The debate on increasing minimum wage has been gaining momentum around the world in the recent years. In developing economies such as Chile and Brazil, for example, high inequality and low standards of living have led to wage recovery policies, while four states in the wealthy United States recently raised the minimum wage, in some cases to US$15 an hour.

Did the impact of economist Thomas Picketty’s best-selling book Capital in the 21st Century cause this? Or perhaps it’s international migration and political polarisation. Either way, the notion that workers deserve a “living wage” is now a global trend.

Mexico is no exception. In 2016, the national minimum wage was increased 4.2% to 73 pesos a day (less than US$4). Even so, it is insufficient to buy what we economists call the “basic basket of goods” for one person – such as beans, tortillas, eggs and a bit of meat – much less to support even a small family.

Now public debate in Mexico is reaching a critical volume, with social organizations, academics, business leaders and political circles arguing that the dismally low minimum wage condemns workers to poverty.

...In reality, relatively few Mexicans actually earn the minimum wage. Official figures show that around eight million workers (more than 10% of the labor force) earn the equivalent of between one and two times the minimum wage.

Read the rest at EconoTimes

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