MEXICO.- It's now well known in Mexico that the daily minimum wage will increase starting next year. Enough to buy five more tortillas, apparently, as it was announced last week. This almost symbolic increase per day will supposedly dampen new prices as a result of inflation and gasoline pricing.

Unlike the U.S., the minimum wage in Mexico is per day and established at the federal level, as well varying according to the state the worker is in, as the country is sectioned into several different federal minimum wage areas:

GEOGRAPHIC AREA "A"

The Federal District, Jalisco, Mexico State, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas and Veracruz among other.This includes Baja California and Baja California Sur.

New minimum wage: $70.10 pesos ($4.75 dlls) Real increase: $2.81 pesos (0.19 dlls)

GEOGRAPHIC AREA "B"

Aguascalientes, Campeche, Coahuila, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tabasco, Yucatan and Zacatecas.

New minimum wage: $66.45 ($4.51 dlls) Real increase: $2.78 pesos (0.19 dlls)

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Mexico has one of the lowest minimum wages in the world, coming in on 8th place among the 113 countries that were measured regarding labor productivity.

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stated that in Mexico only two out of five workers receive a maximum of two minimum wages. Also, Mexico turned out to be the only Latin American country to not register an increase on their daily payment over the last 10 years.

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