Spain is not the only one considering annual increases in your minimum wage. Starting January 1, the Mexican workers who earn the least will see their salaries increased with a new increase in minimum wage.
However, some are beginning to notice that that increase is not reflected on your payroll and is generating some confusion. The trick is that the increase in the minimum wage which has been applied in Januarydoes not imply a general salary increase for all workers, but rather a minimum legal ceiling for salaries.
What is the minimum wage and what is it for? As its name indicates, the minimum wage is the legal minimum amount that any company must pay its workers. In the case of Mexico, this minimum wage is established by Conasami (National Minimum Wage Commission) a decentralized body of the Mexican government that is responsible for updating it every year with the intention of protecting those who earn the least.
However, the salary increase imposed by this body does not represent a percentage that must be applied to all salaries, but rather the minimum daily amount that employees must receive per day. According to the salary table prepared by Conasami, by 2026 the minimum wage will rise to 315.04 pesos per day in most of the country and 440.87 pesos per day in the Northern Border Free Zone. That implies an increase of 13% for the majority of the country, and 5% in the border area with the United States.
Why doesn’t the increase reach everyone? The point of confusion among Mexican workers centers on the erroneous interpretation that this 13% and 5% increase is for salaries, when in reality it would only affect the lowest salaries that are within the legal minimums established in the Federal Labor Law.
That is, if in January 2026, a worker continues to receive a salary of 278.80 pesos (419.88 pesos for the ZLFN), which was the minimum wage in 2025, his employer would be violating labor legislation. However, if an employee already earned more than 316 pesos, his or her salary does not have to have increased, since it exceeds (even if only slightly) the minimum limit established by the Federal Labor Law for 2026.
Who should see their salary increased. There are three clear groups in which there is a legal obligation to increase the salary when the minimum increases. The first and most obvious, those employees who earn less than what is established by the new minimum wage. The second assumption is for those who were already earning exactly the minimum wage in 2025, since with the update they would be out of legality in 2026.
Finally, there is a third group of employees to whom, due to the type of profession they practice, a different scale is applied and, therefore, their salaries must increase even when they already exceed the minimum wage. Specifically they are 60 professional categories that Conasami estimates that, due to their characteristics, they must have a minimum wage higher than that generally applied to other workers.
When the salary is “higher” but does depend on the minimum. In Mexico, the minimum wage can also be applied as a reference indicator in contracts. That is, instead of indicating a specific salary, the employment contract indicates that the salary will be, for example, three times the current minimum wage or 350% of that minimum limit.
In that case, since it is a reference variable, when the minimum wage rises, those wages will also rise in the same proportion according to what is stated in those contracts.
Minimum wage vs. contractual salary. An important factor is to differentiate the minimum wage from the contractual wage. That is, the one that employees agree with the companies at the time of hiring. The first guarantees that no one will be able to charge less than the official figure established each year by the Commission.
If an employment contract concluded a few years ago recognizes a salary that is currently below the minimum wage imposed in 2026, the minimum wage will prevail, since its objective is for employees to update their purchasing power. The salary that appears in the employment contract loses its validity. In that case, the salary increase is not a benefit that the company grants to the employee, but rather a legal obligation.
On the other hand, if the salary indicated in the employment contract still remains above the minimum wage, the employer does not have to increase it, unless individual or collective increases are agreed upon with the workers. In that case, the increases are the result of voluntary negotiation by the company to improve the working conditions of its staff.
Image | Unsplash (Jesus Herrera, Arron Choi)
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