Mexico’s 2026 Minimum Wage Hike: 13% Increase Announced

Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare Marath Baruch Bolaños announced on Wednesday a 13% increase to the general minimum wage effective January 1, 2026, the result of a “unanimous consensus” among the labor sector, business sector, and the government.

During President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference, it was indicated that the minimum wage will rise from 278.80 to 315.04 pesos per day, equivalent to 9,582.47 pesos per month. In the Northern Border Free Zone, the increase will be 5%, bringing the daily wage to 440.87 pesos (13,409.80 pesos monthly).

Bolaños highlighted that, with these adjustments, “we have already achieved in the northern border region a wage that has the possibility of covering 2.8 basic baskets.” He projected that, at the start of the next year, the minimum wage will have recovered 154.2% of its purchasing power compared to 2018, reaching its highest level since 1980.

Furthermore, the official emphasized that the increase fulfills one of the president’s commitments within the “second floor of the Transformation,” aimed at ensuring the minimum wage covers 2.5 basic baskets by 2030.

According to presented data, the wage progress has allowed 6.6 million people to escape poverty exclusively due to minimum wage increases. Those earning less have recorded cumulative increases of 204% in the northern border region and 115% in the rest of the country since 2018.

President Claudia Sheinbaum assured that this minimum wage increase for 2026 will not generate inflationary pressures, after the government consulted on the adjustment with the business sector and the Bank of Mexico (Banxico).

“It does not have impacts on inflation… the labor component in the cost of production would not imply increases in products, and therefore, not in inflation either,” she stated.

“These agreements on wage increases are again the result of a consensus reached within this Commission, and that is why we have the certainty that there will be no impact on it (inflation); in addition to the addition to the PACIC strategy, which is precisely what allows us to monitor that prices have regular behavior without any surprises,” affirmed the Secretary of Labor.