At the end of the first half of the year, the employed population grew by 280,964 people, but the increase in wage earners it was almost double, according to what was reported by the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE). However, the recovery of subordinate work was accompanied by a deterioration of the labor conditions.
In June, the subordinate employment 468,824 people gained, but the group of workers who work more than 48 hours a week, that is, above the legal limit, grew by 697,322 beds. This increase is even 1.4 times higher than the general increase in the population in this condition.
In this way, during the second quarter of the year, wage earners who have working hours greater than the legal maximum went from representing 25% to 27% of the total subordinate job in the country.
“It is one of the symptoms of a larger disease, which is the lack of optimal working conditions. It is definitely bad news if we see an increase between those workers who work long hours and greater than those defined by law,” says Ana Bertha Gutiérrez, coordinator of Foreign Trade and the Labor Market of the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO).
The increase in the subordinate population with days over the legal limit It only gets worse when considering that on many occasions these people do not have a payment for the overtime they work, explains the specialist.
In the sixth month of the year, the population of subordinate workers with an extensive workload grew 6.8%, an increase 2.4 times higher than that observed in May.
From the perspective of Ornella Ortiz, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a labor market specialist, the figures are a symptom of the job insecurity and they show that subordinate people face adverse conditions.
“The people who are in a subordinate condition they should have adequate hours to reconcile work and life and it is essential because they are the largest group among the employed population”, points out the specialist.
Being subordinate is not always good
“This shows us part of the decline in the quality of subordinate employment and that having an employer does not always imply being formal and having the best working conditionsales”, points out Ana Gutiérrez.
The growth of the working population more than 48 hours per week It shows that the perception that subordinate work is usually associated with a better employment situation is not always true, says the specialist.
In this sense, Ornella Ortiz considers that the notion of stability around the subordinate job it remains rooted in the collective imagination, but “time has passed and the processes have become precarious. And you can have the idea that subordination can give you greater certainty than being an entrepreneur or being self-employed, but it doesn’t necessarily happen in reality.”
The fact of having more people working long days shows that stability is not the only important element in subordination, but also the conditions in which one works. “You can have a three-month contract, for example, but you cover shifts of more than 48 hours a week and it could be that there is some stability, but under what conditions? That is super questionable, ”reflects the specialist.
