The minimum wage has risen 95.6% this six-year term, but is impacted by high inflation

Jared Laurels

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday November 20, 2022, p. 12

In the first four years of this six-year term, the increase in the general minimum wage has been 95.6 percent, going from 88.36 to 172.87 pesos per day, according to official data. However, average inflation of 8 percent in recent months – estimated at the end of 2022 – has had a general impact on the purchasing power of families, said Gabriel Badillo, of the Institute of Economic Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

He explained that the increase in the minimum wage in 2022 was 22 percent, but in real terms it is equivalent to 14 percent, so the high levels of inflation, which have put pressure on food prices, he is eating a good part of the increase.

In the free zone of the northern border, the mini-salary amounts to 260.34 pesos per day.

In an interview, the researcher indicated that low-income families or families in poverty allocate most of their salary to food, so they have little or no chance of saving it or spending it on recreational activities. With inflation, he added, they have been forced to purchase products in smaller quantities or of lower quality. They even resort to credit, loans or pawning their assets to be able to get more or less what they were consumingexposed.

Badillo indicated that the affectation is widespread and had been somewhat offset by the very significant increases in this administration, which has made this fall not so important like what we would have had with a more orthodox policy.