Wednesday, November 7, 2012

People Are Funny - Ex Pats In Mexico

 
I may get ragged on if anyone in SMA reads the blog.  I have been in a discussion about the pay for maid service and what to do if you want to fire your maid.  In Mexico, a worker can claim they had worked for you and were fired.  Obviously, the maid was not formally employed.   There is a fine and back pay which by law the ex-employer would have to pay.
 
I attempted several times to make it simple and clear.  First off, it has to be a case where the person is employed full-time.  Second, the best solution to this problem and one I have always tried to explain to people is to make the person "self-employed".  I say this for several reasons.   The person you are hiring to clean your house and cut your grass works in the informal market.  They pay no taxes and receive no benefits such as a retirement pension or social medical care. 
 
To solve this problem for the employee, employer and the country as a whole is to insist that the person register with Hacienda (Lolita).   It is a simple procedure, and most already have their CURP (clave única de registro de poblacion) if they are registered to vote.  With this CURP, they can registered a a "persona fisica" or "self-employed".   They then have to provide a "recibo de honorario" which is easily obtained and allows the person to formally charge the buyer of goods or services which in turn allows the self-employed person to pay taxes, take deductions, and also work for a myriad of persons and do it legally.  They then can begin to contribute to their pension and the social medicine system IMSS and receive a even more benefits such as accumulating points to receive a low-cost government home loan at 6.99% interest.  I have all of those benefits and I have worked for myself for over 20 years having previously been an employee in a school.  What I find interesting in all of this is that most ex-pats like to help Mexicans by giving them money, helping local charities when in reality those are bandaids and not solutions.  I am offering a true long-term solution to really help Mexico and Mexicans. 
 
The problem here is two fold; most if not all ex-pats do not speak the language in Mexico and they are retired and are not informed or involved in the everyday process of living and working in Mexico.   
 
There is one more thing to add and that is they want to live in Mexico as they "think" most Mexicans live.   So I guess that would apply all around, some Mexicans, a percentage but surely not the whole population think it is okay to illegally hire someone, steal electricity or "modify" their electric meter to register less consumption, pay bribes, cheat on getting Seguro Popular for free, etc.   Newcomers think it is cool to perform these illegal acts thinking it will help them become part of the culture.
 
This isn't a rant, but I ran dry trying to explain this to people on a Yahoo group in SMA. 
 


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