Living in Mexico would be a wonderful experience, as you can immerse yourself in the rich culture with a year-round warm climate. With the facilitation from a favorable visa policy that allows you to stay for up to 180 days in Mexico without much difficulty, everything sounds great. You just want to pack and go to the country right away! But wait, don’t rush to book a plane ticket until you have considered the following factors. Firstly, what is the minimum wage in Mexico? Secondly, how did it increase in recent years? Also, does Mexico have welfare? And what are the job prospects in this country? Let’s find the answers.
But first, you can’t go to a country without knowing if you can get drunk there (not kidding). Check out the Drinking Age In Germany And Others. Prost!
Table of Contents
Job Outlook
Labor Market
Overall, Mexico’s job market continued to recover positively in the first months of the year. More specifically, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.89% in March 2021, compared to 4.37% and 4.73% in February and January, respectively.
Also, thousands of foreigners are looking to work in Mexico, ranging from migrants looking for low-level works to highly qualified professionals and executives.
GDP Main Focus
Despite the rising diversity of its economy, Mexico’s GDP still mainly depends on oil, tourism, and foreign remittances from Mexican expatriates.
However, the opening-up of Mexico’s economy is creating a greater demand for experienced workers in the engineering, communication, and technical areas. In other words, foreign engineers with experience in these specialized fields often have excellent job prospects in Mexico.
However, if you are not a technical expert with abundant experience in a specialized field, Mexico is a very challenging place to find jobs, especially well-paid ones.
By and large, many foreigners come to Mexico because of the lifestyle there rather than for professional careers. They tend to accept lower wages or less favorable working conditions than those in their home country. In addition, if you are looking for a job suited to foreigners (for example, English teaching), you will compete with many other foreign candidates. You may accept a mere survival salary that lets you experience Mexican life.
However, many Mexican companies are seeking highly qualified candidates from abroad. Hence, foreign professionals with formal qualifications and years of experience find job-hunting in Mexico much more effortless.
Let’s take a look at language-related jobs. Mexican speak many languages, all of which Spanish is the most widespread one. In addition, we highly recommend being fluent in another language, especially a European one such as French, German or Italian. This would be highly beneficial to you, especially if you want to work for one of the many European companies operating in Mexico.
Getting excited but don’t know where to start, we have broken down the best job searching sites out there for you.
Wage and Benefits
Minimum Wage In Mexico
The CONASAMI, composed of representatives of the government, employers, and employees, meets annually on the topic of the minimum wage in Mexico. It is reported that there is an increase in the minimum wage in Mexico on January 1, 2021, to $141.70 Mexican pesos (equal to 7.07 USD) per workday. This is a 15% rise on the 2019 level of $123.22 (equivalent to 6.15 USD).
The CONASAMI also agreed to increase the minimum wage in Santa Cruz and other municipalities in the Free Economic Zone of the Northern Border to $213.39 Mexican pesos (equivalent to 10.65 USD) per day, effective January 1, 2021. The figure saw an increase of 15% in comparison to the 2020 rate, which was $185.56 (equal to 9.26 USD).
Top 10 Best-paid Jobs in Mexico
No | Careers | Monthly Salary | |
Mexican Peso | US Dollar | ||
1 | Medicine | 17,449 | 870.53 |
2 | Electronics and automatization | 15,109 | 753.78 |
3 | Environmental science | 14,320 | 714.42 |
4 | Publicity and marketing | 13,765 | 686.73 |
5 | Business and management | 13,750 | 685.98 |
6 | Accounting | 13,357 | 666.38 |
7 | Mathematics | 13,232 | 660.14 |
8 | Construction and civil engineering | 12,858 | 641.48 |
9 | Mechanical engineering | 12,843 | 640.73 |
10 | Industrial, electrical and technical engineering | 12,581 | 627.66 |
Besides wages, welfare is also an important factor you should consider before migrating to this country. So does Mexico have welfare?
Welfare
Since 1999, Mexico has been offering social welfare assistance to meet the needs of the Mexican population, especially those who have low incomes, the young, the elderly, and the disabled.
In general, Mexico provides welfare to its citizens through various programs. For example, federally subsidized medical and hospital care is available to all Mexican citizens. Several government institutions such as the Mexican Social Security Institute, the Security and Social Services Institute for Government Workers operate hospitals.
However, public medicine, like public education, is considered inferior to private care. In other words, those who can afford it avail themselves of private physicians and hospitals.
Overall, the quality of medical services varies throughout the country. In general, you can find clinics throughout the country. However, anything more than the most basic medical needs must be handled in the cities. Mexico City is by far the principal center for specialized treatment. Also, Mexico’s overall quality of medical care lags behind that in the United States and Europe. Many Mexicans travel outside the country for more sophisticated surgical procedures or treatments.
Even though Mexico offers welfare to its citizens through various programs, the poverty level in Mexico is currently at 46.2%. More than 10% of those living in poverty live in extreme poverty, earning $1.25 or less per day.
Our Extra Recommendation
In summary, we have general information about job outlook, top careers, welfare, and minimum wage in Mexico. Please consider these criteria carefully, making sure they are suitable for your immigration purposes before moving to live in this country. Also, consider the traffic in Mexico as there can be unpredictably heavy traffic at any time of day.
When you make the final decision, maybe our Types of People in the Workplace guide would help you soon adapt to a new job across the border.
Enjoy these findings? Visit the Career Advice section for more facts and advice.
Visit Jobandedu for more.