“Working Poverty”, which involves both formal and informal workers, increased by 10% in the last year.
MEXICO (Proceso) – In one year, Mexico’s working poverty rate increased by almost 10 percentage points, from 35.7% to 44.5%. This means that at least 4 out of every 10 people in the country do not have enough money to buy the family basic consumables.
“It is determined as “working poverty” when the salary is not enough to buy the family basics. They are people who have jobs, but it is still a tragedy. No worker who has a job should be poor. It is not enough for them to live on what they earn, it does not mean that they do not eat, because in many cases there are supplements to the income obtained by salary, but it is not enough for them to live on what they earn,” said Jorge Sales Boyoli, a specialist in labor law.
The expert explained that working poverty affects employees in the formal and informal sectors; he also warned that labor informality should set off alarm bells since 56.3% of the population over 15 years of age is in this market, which means that they have no social security or work contract nor benefits.
“The data is growing since June, there was only a small drop in July and August, but more and more people are moving to informal work. Having social security and labor stability generates certainty in the labor markets,” he said.
After the loss of 1.1 million formal jobs in the 5 months of the health contingency’s greatest impact, there was an increase in the number of places registered with the IMSS. However, Sales Boyoli states that there are still more than 561 thousand jobs to be recovered to return to pre-pandemic levels.
“The market is recovering, but it is a slow and precarious recovery. We are at levels of 20 years ago,” he warns.
