Wages Accounted for 30.8 Percent of Mexico’s GDP in the First Quarter

ByAlejandro Alegría

This article by Alejandro Alegría originally appeared in the August 28, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. In the first quarter of 2026, wages in the Mexican economy represented 30.8 percent, an advance of 4.1 percentage points compared to 2018, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reported this Friday. According to the Quarterly Institutional Sector Accounts (CSIT), in January–March of this year, employee compensation showed an advance of 1.7 percentage points compared to the same period of 2025, when wages represented 29.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to the information published by INEGI, over the last eight years a positive trend has been observed in the share of compensation, which went from representing 26.7 percent of GDP in the first quarter of 2018 to 30.8 percent in the same period this year.

By contrast, corporate profits in the country represented 39.4 percent of the Mexican economy in the reference period, a decrease of 1.7 percent compared to January–March 2025. Nonetheless, compared to the first quarter of 2018, when it stood at 46.7, the contraction is 7.3 percentage points.

This shows that the distribution of wealth in the country has changed significantly over the last 8 years, benefiting the population that receives compensation.

In the first quarter of 2026, Mexico’s GDP was 35.5 trillion pesos in current terms. Of this amount, 10.9 trillion pesos correspond to employee compensation and 14 trillion pesos to corporate profits.

Separately, according to INEGI, households generated 35.0 percent of the Mexican economy in the first quarter of 2026, an advance of 0.6 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Businesses in Mexican territory contributed 43.5 percent of the country’s GDP, a contraction of 1.5 percentage points compared to January–March 2025.

Financial corporations represented 5.2 percent of the Mexican economy, a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points compared to the first quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the federal government contributed 8.2 percent of GDP in January–March 2026, an increase of 0.6 percentage points compared to the same period a year earlier. For their part, nonprofit institutions serving households represented 0.8 percent of the Mexican economy in the reference period, with no change compared to the first quarter of 2025.