Mexico to Raise Minimum Wage...to $4.70 a Day
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 12/29/2017, 7:02 a.m.
Nearly 25 million Mexicans are getting a pay raise. From $4.25 to $4.70 -- a day.nMexican government and business leaders agreed to raise the country's minimum wage starting on December 1 to 88.36 pesos from 80.04 pesos. The 10% raise is good news for 24.7 million Mexicans who work either one or two minimum wage jobs. But it also resurfaces a key complaint by American workers who voted for President Trump, in part because of his pledge to renegotiate NAFTA, the trade pact between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. With the U.S. national minimum wage at $7.25 per hour -- $58 for an 8-hour workday, or 12 times higher than the Mexican wage -- Mexico has a clear advantage to attract jobs. It's one reason why the country frequently has a very low unemployment rate, which currently stands at 3.6%. By comparison, U.S. unemployment is 4.1% and that's considered very low by American standards. For Mexican workers, the wage hike is much needed as rising prices have weakened Mexicans' purchasing power.
