Mexico Raises Minimum Wages for 2026: 13% & 5%

ByAlma E. Muñoz and Alonso Urrutia

This article by Alma E. Muñoz and Alonso Urrutia originally appeared in the December 3, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo announced a 13 percent increase in the general minimum wage in 2026, bringing it to 9,582.47 pesos.

“This agreement reached by consensus between the business sector and workers is very good news for all Mexicans,” the President emphasized at the start of her morning press conference. This increase “has no impact on inflation” nor will it lead to price increases.”

Marath Bolaños, Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare, highlighted the sustained increase in the minimum wage above inflation. “This is one of the objectives we have established, and it is now constitutionally mandated to reach 2.5 times the cost of basic necessities.”

We have defined, he stated, the minimum wages that will be in effect starting January 1, 2026: a 13 percent increase in the general minimum wage, which will raise it from 278.80 pesos to 315.04 pesos per day on a monthly basis. “This represents 9,582.47 pesos.”

In the Northern Border Zone, the increase is five percent, going from 419.88 pesos to 440.87 pesos daily, which represents 13,409.80 pesos monthly.

“With this increase on the northern border, we are fulfilling part of the established commitment to reach 2.5 basic food baskets; we have already achieved it” in that area.

“We are very pleased and estimate that by the beginning of next year, the minimum wage will have recovered 154.2 percent of its purchasing power during the transformation governments in real terms.”

He argued that this is “the highest level recorded in the wage register since 1980, also going back to the process of wage precarization during the neoliberal period, and in the case of the free zone of the northern border, the amount remains above the historical maximum reached in 1976.”

Bolaños pointed out that with the increase, he will now be able to buy 7.1 kilos of beans, 6.5 kilos of eggs, and 14.8 kilos of tortillas.

YearDaily Wage (MXN)% Rise
2019$102.6816%
2020$123.2220%
2021$141.7015%
2022$172.8723%
2023$207.4420%
2024$248.9320%
2025$278.8012%
2026$315.0413%
President Sheinbaum’s two minimum wage increases have been below the historical record % raises that her predecessor AMLO instituted during his six year term.

Francisco Cervantes, from the Business Coordinating Council, highlighted that the government, workers and companies “have always shown a special openness to negotiating conditions that favor the different population groups, especially the most vulnerable groups.”

He added that these types of negotiations in the tripartite commission take place within the current legal framework, within the channels of the rule of law, and respect fundamental values ​​that are pillars for the Mexican economy, such as formal employment, workers’ rights, productive stability, legal security, efficiency, and the development of companies and sources of employment in our country.