By IANS/EFE,
Mexico City : Mexico has approved an average minimum wage hike of 4.2 percent, or about 2.51 pesos ($0.18) per day, a measure that will go into effect starting Jan 1.
Mexico’s National Commission on Minimum Wages, or CNSM, is an organization in which the government, business associations and the main labour unions are represented, and has become a place for reaching agreements on miminum wage increases.
The demand of organized labor was for a 10 percent wage increase.
The 4.2 percent minimum wage hike was described by the Center for Labor Research and Union Consulting, or CILAS, as just one more joke at the expense of millions of Mexican men and women.
“This increase, insufficient as usual, the only thing it does is guarantee an increase in the number of poor people,” the organization said.
According to official figures, between July and September there were 2.8 million jobless people, plus 4.2 million who were underemployed and another 13.4 million working in the informal economy.
Of the 113 million Mexicans, according to the latest census, some 52 million are living in poverty.