DistantNews
Support us
Formal employment pays 1.8 times more than informal; salary gap reaches 6,840 pesos per month
🇲🇽 Mexico /Economy & Trade

Formal employment pays 1.8 times more than informal; salary gap reaches 6,840 pesos per month

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Context piece
  • Formal employment in Mexico pays 1.8 times more than informal work, with a monthly salary gap of 6,840 pesos.
  • Men in formal jobs earn 2.3 times more than women in informal jobs, and men generally earn more than women regardless of employment type.
  • Structural labor market conditions, not just individual choices, drive informality, hindering Mexico's goal to reduce it by 2030.

Formal employment in Mexico offers significantly higher earnings than informal work, with a substantial monthly salary gap of 6,840 pesos. On average, individuals in formal jobs earn 15,204 pesos per month, compared to 8,364 pesos in the informal sector, according to an analysis by México ¿Cómo vamos?.

The average income for men with formal employment is 2.3 times higher than for women with informal employment, while within each type of employment and informality, men's average labor incomes are higher than women's. The income difference also has to do with the level of education among men, but not with respect to women.

— Axel Eduardo GómezThe coordinator for 'Radiography of informality and employment quality' at México ¿Cómo vamos? explains the gender and education dynamics within the wage gap.

The wage disparity is even more pronounced when considering gender. Men in formal employment earn 2.3 times more than women in informal jobs. Across both formal and informal sectors, men consistently earn more than women, despite women often having higher average educational attainment. This educational advantage does not translate into equal income.

Axel Eduardo Gómez, coordinator at México ¿Cómo vamos?, emphasized that informality is not solely a matter of individual decisions but is deeply rooted in structural conditions of the labor market and limited opportunities. Factors such as the number of children, lower educational levels, self-employment, working in micro and small enterprises, and regional location can exacerbate difficulties for women in the informal sector.

Informality is not a homogeneous situation nor does it respond exclusively to individual decisions.

— Axel Eduardo GómezThe coordinator highlights the structural factors contributing to informal employment.

While informal labor has decreased by 4.5 percentage points since 2005, the transition from informal to formal employment has stagnated in recent years. This slowdown complicates Mexico's National Development Plan goal of reducing informal labor to 48.9% by 2030.

This stagnation since 2024 makes it difficult to meet the goal established in the National Development Plan 2025-2030 of the Government of Mexico to reduce informal labor to 48.9% in 2030.

— Axel Eduardo GómezThe coordinator points out the challenge in achieving the government's target for reducing informality.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog