Weekly Report - 23 November 2017 (WR-17-46)

MEXICO | Minimum salary increase. The national minimum salary commission (Conasami) announced this week that it has agreed to increase the minimum salary by 10.4% to M$88.36 (US$4.30) per day starting from 1 December. The minimum salary increase approved by the Conasami is lower than the M$95.40 rate proposed by Mexico’s confederation of employers (Coparmex), a business sector lobby. Coparmex argued that the low national minimum salary was contributing to keeping wages in Mexico unduly low, and that this has been flagged up as an issue in the renegotiations of the terms of Nafta. Pointedly, the Mexican institute of financial executives (Imef) said that the minimum salary increase should help to advance the Nafta renegotiations by sending the “right political signals”. The Imef also noted that the salary increase will not be inflationary, as it would only benefit 1.2m workers. However, Coparmex, which before the latest increase noted that the minimum salary only covers 84% of the cost of a basic basket of goods as set by the national social development evaluation council (Coneval) and remains one of the lowest in Latin America, said that while positive the increase only represents “limited progress”. Coparmex said that the new minimum salary covers 92.76% of the cost of the basic basket of goods and that the goal should be for it to fully cover this cost.

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