Celebrating a Return to the 1976 Minimum Wage Is Not Progress—It’s Proof That Mexico Still Hasn’t Fixed Its Wage Crisis

OP-ED

Today’s press conference, in which President Claudia Sheinbaum proudly presented a chart as “Good news”, showing that Mexico’s minimum wage has “finally reached the level of 1976,” reveals far more about the country’s labor crisis than about any governmental achievement. What was presented as a historic victory is, in reality, a reminder of the severe erosion of Mexicans’ purchasing power.

Yes, the minimum wage in the border region has “returned” to 1976 levels — and in the rest of the country to 1980 levels — but it did so after seven years of accelerated increases and only because Mexico endured four decades of wage collapse.

This point is crucial: 1976 was not a time of prosperity; it was the beginning of the economic crisis that would explode in the 1980s, pushing Mexico toward some of the lowest wages in the world. This data was actually shown visually during a press conference in 2020 under the López Obrador administration.

In fact, the real wages Mexico once enjoyed — particularly in the 1950s and early 1960s — were significantly higher. In other words: we did not recover the golden era; we recovered a year that was already part of the decline.

Why celebrate that?

The official narrative attempts to frame this “return” as proof of social justice. But once placed in context, the reality becomes alarming:

• The prices of goods, appliances, and housing in Mexico increasingly resemble those in the United States.
• The minimum wage remains only $15 to $20 USD per day, far too little to live with dignity in any Mexican city.
• Even after tripling the minimum wage since 2018, it is still not enough to cover the real cost of living, because the country began from one of the most deteriorated wage levels in the world.

Returning to 1978 is not a triumph—it’s evidence of accumulated damage. It is like celebrating that, after tearing a house down to its foundations, we finally managed to rebuild the ground floor.

Daily minimum wage comparison (2025)

Considering that the United States itself is experiencing a minimum wage crisis—its federal minimum wage has not increased in nearly 30 years—this comparison with Mexico highlights an even more dramatic reality: Mexico’s minimum wage is so low that it falls below many Central American countries.

If Mexico wants a living wage — not a symbolic one — it would require an additional 300% increase, not to match the U.S., but simply to reach a level where a family can pay rent, food, transportation, and schooling without falling into debt.

The question is not: How did we manage to return to 1978?
The real question is: Why is a country of 130 million people celebrating this as progress?

Mexico does not need retroactive speeches or institutional nostalgia. It needs real wages, serious economic policy, and a government willing to stop celebrating as a victory what, in any honest analysis, is painful proof of how far we still have to go.

Watch today’s Press conference,  wage report, in english

Este artículo está disponible en español:  Presumir el salario de 1976 no es progreso: es la prueba de que México sigue sin resolver la crisis salarial