Mexico prepares for 40-hour workweek by 2030 in major labour overhaul

Mexico’s ruling Morena party hailed the bill’s successful passage after years of back-and-forth with business owners.

Mexico has passed a bill to incrementally lower the standard workweek from 48 to 40 hours, though critics fear the reduction will be offset by increases to the overtime hours allowed.

The bill cleared Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies late on Tuesday with a broad base of support.

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Out of 500 deputies, 469 voted in favour of the broad outline of the bill, and none opposed it. Its specific terms were then approved with 411 votes in support.

Still, the votes came after nearly 10 hours of debate, as critics raised opposition to some of the bill’s terms.

Set to begin next year, the reform offers a trade-off. While the total hours in a workweek are slated to decrease, the law permits employers to raise the amount of weekly overtime.

It also fails to change the minimum number of rest days required. In Mexico, the law currently mandates one rest day for every six days worked.

There will also be a delay in when the shorter workweek takes effect. The workweek will be trimmed by two hours per year until 2030.

President Claudia Sheinbaum introduced the proposal in December. It is slated to benefit nearly 13.4 million workers in Mexico.

The ruling Morena party hailed its approval, which follows years of back-and-forth with business owners.

“Productivity is not measured by exhaustion. It is built with dignity,” said Pedro Haces, a Morena representative and the secretary general of the Autonomous Confederation of Workers and Employees of Mexico, a labour organisation.

Mexico has Latin America’s second-largest economy, with a gross domestic product of about $1.86 trillion, according to the World Bank.

But critics argue that it has the worst work-life balance of any country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Its workers average more than 2,226 work hours per person annually.

Despite these long hours, the nation struggles with the lowest labour productivity and the lowest wages of the organisation’s 38 member states. Roughly 55 percent of its workforce also remains in the informal sector, meaning they lack the legal protections other workers enjoy.

Some members of Mexico’s opposition argued that this week’s bill fails to go far enough.

“The idea of the reform is not bad, but it is incomplete and was done in a rush,” said Alex Dominguez, a lawmaker from the opposition PRI party.

The bill now needs to be approved by two-thirds of Mexico’s state legislatures to go into effect.

While Mexico moves towards a shorter 40-hour workweek, Latin America’s third-biggest economy, Argentina, is taking the opposite approach.

Faced with labour shortages and economic stagnation, Argentina’s President Javier Milei has championed a controversial bill that would extend the workday from eight to 12 hours and restrict overtime pay.

Last week, Argentina’s lower house of Congress narrowly approved the controversial labour reform. It is expected to get a final approval from the Senate in the coming days.