Minimum Wage in Mexico and the Consecuences of Social Inequality

Abstract

The concerning issue about the minimum wage in Mexico has been discussed from various spheres such as the political, economic and social ones. However, the different governments at federal level have not taken the necessary measures and public policies to establish a truly remunerative salary, enough to cover everything from food expenses to health, housing and recreation costs. Within the current challenges of the federal government, structural reforms have been carried out to raise minimum wages in the national territory by having different salary rates between the border zone and zone A, which only fosters wage-inequality between workers in both economic zones and it has a direct impact on the increase in poverty rates for Mexican families. Besides, by increasing the minimum wage every year the federal government, through its institutions, will need to rethink this issue from the social, economic and human-rights perspectives with the aim of creating an effective public policy that guarantees workers access to remunerative wages by which they can have a decent standard of living. A viable alternative to strengthen the minimum wage in Mexico is to unify a single wage for all workers, since the existence of two wages fosters discrimination and social inequality between them. Given the current human rights problem it is important to analyze the economic, political or social factors that cause minimum wages in the national territory not to rise considerably.