“Minimum wage will increase by 12% each year,” Promises Sheinbaum

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Alfredo Valadez Rodríguez originally appeared in the September 5, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Zacatecas, Zacatecas. Next year and every year of this six-year term, there will be a 12 percent increase in the minimum wage, because that is a way to distribute wealth in the country and improve the living conditions of Mexicans from the bottom up, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo stated this Friday in Zacatecas.

Before thousands of women and men who welcomed her in the Plaza de Armas in the capital of Zacatecas, she said that the state has managed to spend more than 13 billion pesos in various social programs in the first year of her administration.

“When workers earn more, wealth is distributed, which is why I pledged to continue increasing the minimum wage each year, by at least 12 percent annually, so that workers can buy 2.5 basic food baskets,” she emphasized.

More than 825,000 people in Zacatecas, the President reported, receive at least one support from the federal government, including 67,185 families who received the Rita Cetina scholarship.

The President confirmed the need to reach agreements at the state level for the construction of the Milpillas Dam in the municipality of Jiménez del Teúl, because “it is a very necessary project for the towns and the countryside of Zacatecas. We have already committed to David (Monreal, the governor) to build this dam through Conagua.”

Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated that the federal government is promoting a program that aims to ensure that farmers in Zacatecas produce 300,000 more tons of beans—in addition to the 300,000 tons harvested here each year—“so that we stop importing beans and achieve food sovereignty in the country” for this important staple.

As a result, the government managed to rehabilitate and put into operation the former National Seed Producer plant in the municipality of Calera—which had been abandoned by previous neoliberal governments—and it is now operating again.

“What does it consist of? At this center, we improve the seed through planting with producers, and from there, we produce the seed so we can deliver the improved seed and improve productivity,” she explained.

Sheinbaum said it’s a program primarily for Zacatecas, although some will also be produced in Durango and Nayarit.

Another important announcement for the state from the President was that next year “we are going to build a Rosario Castellanos National University here in Zacatecas and increase the number of high schools.”