Mexico's Employee Benefits and Welfare Programs

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.