“The objective that we set ourselves is to reach a decision by consensus, to find what is best to increase the wages of workers,” said the president of Coparmex.
He added that before setting an amount for the increase in workers’ income for next year, two details must be taken into account:
1 That the increase does not generate inflation that affects the decrease in purchasing power, and.
2. That the increase does not push workers into informality, where they do not have social security.
This year the minimum wage is 172.87 pesos per day. If the 15% increase proposed by the employer sector is approved, by 2023 the income will be 198.80 pesos per day. At the close of the first half of November, inflation is 8.1%.
The objective is to bring the minimum wage to the line of family welfare by the year 2026. According to the Inegi, explained José Medina, in an average family of four members, where two work, there is enough to buy the food and non-food basket.
“We are doing the analysis with the workers’ unions and the government of what will be the steps not only for the increase in 2023, but in 2024 and 2025 to reach this goal,” said the leader of the employer sector.
A few months ago, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that the increase in the minimum wage will depend on inflation.
cost increase
Now that an increase in vacation days has been approved, as well as employer contributions to retirement savings for their workers and the salary increase, there will be an extra increase for employers. Given this scenario, Medina Mora highlighted the need to increase productivity.
“We have a very low productivity in Mexico, only 30% of the productivity of the countries that are part of the OECD,” lamented the employers’ leader.
The increase in the amount of employer contributions for retirement savings begins next year, with the goal of reaching 15%.
Regarding vacation days, the businessman pointed out that in five years Mexico will be at the international average; “We are very low right now,” he lamented. However, he added, the increase in vacation days will translate into a higher vacation premium that employers will have to pay.
The cost for each company will be different, since it will depend on the composition of its workers and the salary it pays, explained José Medina.
To comply with the payment of taxes
The leader of the employer sector spoke in favor of complying with the law, “and the payment of taxes is in the law,” he said.
“If a company pays a lot of taxes, it means that it has a lot of profits, that’s good! This will also generate a higher PTU (participation of the workers in the profits) for the collaborators of the companies”, said José Medina.
He also pointed out that there must be “transparency and accountability” with the taxes paid by citizens.
