living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com
Feel free to skip to
the charts at the bottom of the page. Also, leave a comment or send me an email which is here at the top.
The reason I’ve written
this is to make sure that those who help the poor in Mexico are aware of the
programs and to ensure that those they are helping know about and are taking
advantage of them. In addition to whatever you are doing, it is important that we understand the help most Mexicans receive. If families have children in public schools, it is almost a 100% probability that they are receiving funds from the government. Why? Because the public school and the school's principal will receive part of these funds via school activities, new school supplies, and cleaning materials needed to maintain the school. Don't be fooled. And if they aren't receiving funds, are poor and have kids in school, they have no business having children.
Feel free to skip to
the charts at the bottom of the page that explain these benefits. This is the law and our illustrious president has made this his cross.
I
thought It would be interesting, while I’m sheltered in place, to share information that most ex-pats and
rvers coming to Mexico may not be aware of. There are many groups, organizations as well
as individuals who help Mexican families by providing school materials,
uniforms, clothing as well as food. Some
have even adopted families and have helped them with surgeries for children or necessities
such as wheelchairs, walkers, and the like for the elderly or handicapped family
members. I’m all for it but I would like
to share that there are excellent government programs that are available and
many people are either not aware of them, don’t know who to talk to, or are
afraid to have contact with government agencies because they may be doing
things that they fear would cause them problems.
For 36 years Mexico has
lived a very progressive and what some call neoliberal lifestyle. Whether one agrees or not, after the major the
collapse of oil in the early 80s and the Great Devaluation under the regime of
Lopez Portillo, Mexico began an economic resurgence. International trade agreements were formed
(Salinas de Gotari), Mexico allowed much more importation of goods available to
the common person and Mexico’s middle-class began to flourish.
When I first moved to
Mexico in 1984, consumer products were very limited and electronics for example
were limited to the upper class or those that had some type of government
contact who could help with the purchase and importation of the product from
the other side of the border. What
people see today, fast food chains, big box stores, supermarket chains that
compare to those such as HEB Superstores and Mega Walmart, were
non-existent.
For example, at a Gigante
supermarket (they still exist in California), there was one type of milk. There were no options and I am not referring
to imported products. Today, complete
supermarket aisles are dedicated to milk, with the Lala brand (Lala refers to
its home office location of La Camarca Lagunera in the area of Torreon,
Coahuila) now offers more than 14 different types of milk multiplying that by
the other ten or so national brands.
In terms of incomes,
which have risen over the years, minimum wage has increased considerably
percentage-wise. As many of you know,
very few Mexicans earn minimum wage as
defined by that term. I won’t go into
too much detail but minimum wage is the value expressed in pesos, individually
or in multiples thereof, to determine administrative penalties and fines,
payment concepts and reference amounts, provided for in the current local
regulations in Mexico. For example,
speeding in a school zone (20KPH) in Monterrey, is 1200 pesos or as it states
in the transit handbook, 10 minimum salaries.
Here is an established list of average salaries by profession.
Average Mexican Salaries By Job Description
A public school teacher
who works two shifts in the northern state of Nuevo Leon (most public schools
have morning and afternoon classes, despertino y matutino) and the salary
averages 16,000 pesos per month after taxes. There are federal schools and state schools
and they can be in the same neighborhood and the pay can vary. All Mexican salaries are listed after
tax. You are probably aware of the
benefits (prestaciones) that an employee receives.
Let me digress for a minute and explain that
for a person to receive benefits they must be registered and work in the formal
economy, blue and white-collar jobs. The informal economy includes people who sell things on their own, have a
small business that is not registered, and so on. The benefits that a formally employed Mexican
receives “by law” are the following; profit sharing based on position,
Christmas bonus based on years worked, INFONAVIT which is a federally backed
first-time buyers home loan based at a low fixed interest rate, food coupons
(vales de despensa), and free medical healthcare for the worker, spouse,
children and any parents living in the household. Mexico has an informal market (those that don’t
pay any taxes) of 54% and ranks as number 15 in the list of countries and
informal markets. Sad but true and there
are those that are informal but make quite a bit of money but pay no taxes.
There has also been,
for many years, programs that provide assistance to the poor. Among those are Liconza/Diconza which is a
program that provides free milk to all children and pregnant women under 18
years of age. In rural areas, there
needs to be a minimum of 100 children to be eligible for the program. A person is assigned in the community to be
the distribution point. You’ve seen
women walking around with a pail with a cloth over it. Many times it is milk or corn masa.
A program started in
the late 80s early 90s was Oportunidades.
Under different administrations, it has undergone name changes such as
Próspera and today, Bienstar. The
programs cover health and education. As
you can see from the charts below, a family with three children and a grandparent
in the home can receive as much as 10,550 pesos bi-monthly (every two
months). Going back and looking at the
salaries webpage, you will see that many Mexicans make this monthly amount
(roughly 5000 pesos). That in addition
to the financial benefits in the chart many families should be living quite
well.
These funds are paid directly to the family or individual via a debit card. The current federal administration is opening 2700 small bank branches in rural areas to help distribute and make the receipt of the money easier.
The reason I’ve written
this is to make sure that those who help the poor are aware of the programs and
to ensure that those they are helping know about are taking advantage of
them.
One additional program
added this year is the “Tanda”. Tandas
generally are made up of a group of people who decide to each contribute a
weekly or monthly amount into the pot and one of the members receives what’s in
the pot each month or week. It makes its rounds until everyone has received their money.
The government now is offering a “Tanda” which is a “no interest” one-year loan
with “no strings attached”. You have one
year to pay it back and if you do you can ask for another and increase the
amount. If you don’t pay it back,
nothing will happen but you will no longer be eligible for more. The maximum amount is currently 25,000 pesos
and is offered to small family businesses that are not registered. No, I don’t get it either but that’s our new
president.
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