Mexico sets small increase in country's meager minimum wage
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 22, 2000

Mexico City – Despite widespread dissatisfaction with low minimum wages here, a quasi-government board granted workers an increase of only $0.25 cents per day (2.45 pesos) for 2001.

Starting Jan. 1, the lowest-paid employees – about 20 percent of Mexican workers earn the minimum wage – will get 40.35 pesos per day, or about U.S. dollars $4.21, a 6.5-percent increase from the current rate.

An announcer at Mexico City's AM Formato 21 radio station reacted with shock to the decision, telling listeners to "call in, if you can think of anything you can buy with two pesos."

The median salary *(not 'mean' or 'average') here *(Mexico City) is about three times the minimum.

The increase was exactly in line with the government's inflation goal of 6.5 percent for 2001, meaning that, even if the government meets it's goal, workers will see no real-term gains.

That comes on the heels of nearly two decades in which the purchasing power of the minimum wage has steadily shrunk, losing about 75 percent of its value since its peak in 1980.

The minimum wage level is set by a commission made up of government, labor and business leaders. Labor leaders had earlier said they would demand a double-digit salary hike, but apparently abandoned that position.

Workers in rural regions can be paid a sub-minimum wage of as little as U.S. dollars $3.75 (35.85 pesos) per day under the new rate schedule.

Copyright©2000 AP News

*Added for clarification.