Cancún Restaurants to Cut Shifts Rather Than Hire as 40-Hour Workweek Nears

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Restaurant owners in Cancún, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres plan to restructure staff shifts rather than take on new employees as they prepare for Mexico’s move to a 40-hour workweek in 2027, the head of the local restaurant chamber said.

Perla Flores Navarro, president of Canirac Cancún — the local branch of the National Chamber of the Restaurant Industry and Seasoned Foods — said the sector is bracing for a difficult economic stretch driven by the labor reform, which would cut the working week from 48 hours to 40.

Flores Navarro said the industry has spent two years studying the implications of the change, which she said will add directly to restaurants’ fixed costs.

Cutting hours is the first option

In an interview, the Canirac president said trimming operating schedules would be the initial response if the local economy does not recover substantially.

“Right now we’re in the middle of all the tax issues that are going to hit us very hard at the start of the year,” she said. “We will surely have to make adjustments to the shifts run in the restaurants.”

Hiring will depend entirely on whether the sector grows in 2027, she added.

“If the economic trend stays as it is, we wouldn’t have the possibility of hiring more staff. If everything goes very well and we have growth in 2027, then we could talk about starting to hire more people.”

Flores Navarro said the shorter workweek will feed directly into each establishment’s bottom line, compounding other cost pressures expected at the start of the year.

“We would of course have to work on our operating costs, because this will undoubtedly increase operating costs. Because the minimum wage is also going up, and with that, taxes go up too,” she said.

What the sector is facing

• Adjusting schedules: Changing the operating hours of establishments is the first option under consideration.
• Stacked costs: The impact of the shorter workweek will add to minimum wage increases and higher taxes.
• Hiring on hold: Any new recruitment will depend exclusively on economic growth in the sector during 2027.

Sector running at 60% of capacity

The region’s restaurant industry is currently operating at about 60 percent of capacity. Projections call for occupancy of between 70 percent and 75 percent in the weeks surrounding the year-end holidays, without full houses expected at establishments in Cancún, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres.

After a season of thin financial margins, Canirac’s leadership said it will keep communication channels open with federal authorities. The chamber’s main goal is a gradual transition that avoids business closures or job losses in the tourist destination.