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Paid annual leave will increase from a minimum six to twelve days a year in Mexico, a major economic partner of the United States and one of the least affluent countries within the OECD and even in Latin America.
Paid annual leave will increase from a minimum six to twelve days a year in Mexico, a major economic partner of the United States and one of the least affluent countries within the OECD and even in Latin America. After the Congress of Deputies, on Wednesday 14 December the Senate unanimously voted on the law which provides for at least “twelve days of continuous vacation” for employees.
A “worthy vacation”
“We finally have a dignified vacation!” the Mexican Labor Secretariat rejoiced on its Twitter account. The Confederation of Employers of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex) has defined the reform carried out by the left-wing government as “positive”, but has proposed its gradual application (nine days in 2023, twelve days in 2024). Coparmex has also suggested two periods of six consecutive days, and not twelve days without interruption: “It is impractical for all companies and also for their workers”. “In Mexico, we work 23% more hours than the average across OECD countries, but we are less productive,” Coparmex noted in a November news release.
Mexico remains one of the countries with the lowest paid statutory annual leave within developed economies in the OECD (five weeks in France, at least two weeks in Canada, 24 days in Belgium, at least four weeks in Switzerland). Mexico is approaching the standards in force in the United States (an average of ten days to two weeks of annual leave).
Even in Latin America, the Mexican worker has fewer paid vacation days than in most other countries (minimum 15 days in Colombia, for example). The reform also provides for two days of additional paid annual leave for every five years of seniority.
Minimum wage increase
It comes after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a further 20% increase in the minimum wage in 2023. per day,” the president said during a November 27 speech taking stock of his four years in power.
The working population was 60.4 million people in October 2022, according to the National Statistics Institute. The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) lists only 21.6 million jobs as of the same date, due to the large share of informal work.
With the AFP
