According to the National Household Revenue and Expenses Survey (Enight), measure in constant pesos of 2024, the average quarterly income for independent work went from 5,061 pesos per household in 2016 to 6,057 pesos in 2024, a real increase of 19.7%.
This advance is given in a context where independent work covers from own business to trade and professional services, and is the main occupation of 13.8 million Mexicans over 12 years.
Contrasts and inequalities
Between 2022 and 2024, the labor income of urban independent workers in the extractive and electricity industry grew 49.8%, the largest jump in the period. However, in the same period they registered strong falls in strategic activities, but that affected rural areas.
In fact, in the period, the entry of independent workers grew more in the urban field, with prominent increases in the extractive industry (49.8%), social services (39.3%) and construction (18%), while in the rural stagnation or setback predominated, especially in agriculture (-8.1%), extractive industry (-18.9%) and professional services (-26.4%).
This would explain, in part, that Chiapas and the State of Mexico concentrate the largest number of independent workers in the country, with 1.7 and 1.2 million people, respectively.
In both cases, this form of occupation is key to the entry of households, although in Chiapas its relevance is accentuated by the low level of average income and the high incidence of multidimensional poverty, which makes work on their own account a subsistence strategy rather than economic growth.
In addition, Guillermo Arredondo, a society researcher at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), points out that the greatest increase in current income due to independent work occurred between 2020 and 2022, after the pandemic, when it increased 25.8%. And only 1.2% grew between 2022 and 2024, which speaks of the fact that, although it has gained relevance, there was a slowdown in its growth.
For subordinate workers, income increased in all sectors and areas, reflecting a more homogeneous impulse. Experts point out that self -employment, on many occasions, entails charges such as lack of social security access, fluctuating or insufficient income.
The composition of total current per capita income (ICTPC) confirms that independent work is more relevant in homes with less resources.
In the first decil, it represented 20.3% of the income in 2024 (slightly below 21.2% of 2022), while in the tenth decil it barely reached 6.4% (from 7.9% in 2022), points the IMCO researcher.
In absolute terms, the quarterly average income for independent work is 5,617 pesos per household, compared to 42,311 pesos for subordinate work and 11,024 pesos for transfers.
An indirect effect of the increase in minimum wage
Although independent work is not subject to the legal obligation to pay the minimum wage, specialists consider that salary improvements in formal employment have had a drag effect on this sector.
“The informal ones were not obliged to raise the salary … but still increased and I think that, in some way, is also reflected in independent work,” said Máximo Jaramillo, director of the Institute of Inequality Studies.
This phenomenon suggests that the structural change in labor income derived from the increase in the minimum wage also permeated in unregulated activities, by raising the income of those who work on their own.
