Less Hours, More Life

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Gonzalo Gómez Alarcón, Federal Deputy for Jalisco for the Workers’ Party, originally in June-July 2025 edition of the magazine El PT es la 4T. The government of Claudia Sheinbaum has promised to achieve a 40 hour work week in Mexico by 2030, initiating a series of forums with representatives of the business class, but there is a substantial demand from within the governing coalition by the PT and by external social movements and some unions to implement the 40 hour workweek immediately. The 40 hour workweek was adopted as the standard for decent work by the International Labour Organization in 1935, 90 years ago.

In Mexico, most working people live in a permanent contradiction: they work longer hours than the world average,
but that doesn’t mean they live better.

The current economic model, inherited from neoliberalism, has naturalized overexploitation as if it were part of the social contract. Faced with this unjust scenario, the Workers’ Party (PT) is raising its voice and acting decisively: we are promoting the reduction of the working week from 48 to 40 hours as a historic, urgent, and profoundly humane measure.

This isn’t just another legislative initiative. It’s a demand for justice. It’s a commitment to a country that prioritizes a dignified life over corporate profits. It’s a reform with a working-class perspective, one that responds to the ideological heart of our movement: putting the well-being of the people above the interests of capital.

Work can no Longer be Synonymous With Exhaustion.

Mexico is one of the OECD countries where people work the most and, paradoxically, where they earn the least. This formula has generated a tired, underpaid workforce with no time to live. The consequences are visible: chronic stress, broken families, poor academic performance, an increase in mental and physical illnesses, and a deep sense of social exhaustion.

Since its founding, the Workers’ Party has defended labor rights as fundamental pillars for building a more just society. Our 40-hour workweek proposal seeks to break with decades of precariousness disguised as “productivity” and reclaim something the system has denied: the right to free time.

May Day march, Mexico City, May 1, 2025 Photo: Jay Watts

Why 40 hours? Because it’s Just. Because it’s Possible.

Reducing the workday isn’t a radical idea; it’s a logical measure. In countries like France, Germany, Norway, and Chile, shorter workdays are already part of the economic model. And far from collapsing productivity, they have shown that employees with more free time are happier, healthier, and more efficient.

In Mexico, what’s radical isn’t working less, but rather working 48 hours or more, often without benefits, without social security, and with undignified wages. That’s why this reform is not only feasible: it’s imperative.

From Congress, our PT representatives have been firm in demanding that this proposal be approved without pretense, without exceptions that void it of substance, and without corporate blackmail that appeals to fear rather than reason.

A Step Towards Real Transformation

Reducing the workday will have a direct and positive impact on millions of people: mothers and fathers who will be able to live with their children; young people who will be able to study, train, and develop; workers who will be healthier and less stressed; and communities that will see the rebirth of their social fabric.

Furthermore, this reform boosts domestic consumption, strengthens the local economy, and generates a new approach to work: not as a punishment, but as an activity that must coexist with rest, art, sports, and community life.

That is why we say clearly: working fewer hours is not a threat to the economy; it is an opportunity to reorganize it with a human purpose.

PT mobilization, Mexico City, July 2022 Photo: Jay Watts

The PT: Coherence, Struggle, and Commitment to the Working People

Unlike other parties that pretend to be allies of the people but legislate in the service of big capital, the Workers Party maintains its historical line of coherence and consistency. Under the firm and committed leadership of Senator Alberto Anaya Gutiérrez, we have made this reform a strategic priority on our legislative agenda.

We are not alone. This struggle has also been supported by independent unions, social organizations, and labor groups that share the same conviction: work to live, not live to work.

We know there is resistance. We know there will be attempts to stop or dilute this initiative. But we also know that the most important changes in Mexico’s history have emerged when organized people push from below, and when political forces, like the Workers’ Party (PT), are willing to legislate courageously and without giving in.

Conclusion: Return Time to the People

The 40-hour workday is not an end in itself, but the beginning of a new way of understanding work and life. It means giving back to the people what the system has taken from them for decades: their time, their health, their right to rest.

From the transformative left, with our feet on the ground and our heart in the causes of the people, the Labor Party will continue to fight for this and other reforms that restore dignity to those who produce everything.

Because a country that respects its working class is a country moving toward justice.

40 HOURS NOW!
THE PEOPLE DESERVE TIME TO LIVE