The professional minimum wages (SMP), like the general minimum wage (SMG), will receive a 22% increase starting next January 1. It should not have been the same proportion, says Roberto Gutiérrez Rodríguez, head of the Department of Economics of the Iztapalapa Unit of the Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM). The objective of these remunerations is to guarantee a decent payment to those who worked in 61 occupations and professions and they are in a vulnerable situation, such as informality. Therefore they must have a higher floor, he explains.
This Wednesday, the National Commission of Minimum Wages (Conasami) announced that unanimously the labor, employer and government sectors agreed that in 2022 the SMG will go from 141.70 to 172.87 pesos per day. In the Free Zone of the North Border it will rise from 213.39 to 260.34 pesos.
“The professional minimum wage it aims to avoid the exploitation of workers in the provision of their labor services, that is why they were assigned a higher amount ”, but the trend in recent years has been equating them with the general salary, says Roberto Gutiérrez.
Many of the working people included in the SMP list work in informality. Therefore, health expenses are borne out of their pockets. Lacking social security, they do not generate savings to retire one day, they do not have benefits such as the Christmas bonus, care licenses or days of disability.
According to the SMP list, a poultry farm manager will earn 173.86 pesos in 2022 in most of the national territory. The difference to the SMG is only 99 cents. For the chambermaids or chambermaids in hotels, motels and other lodging establishments the salary was 175.77, almost 3 pesos more than the general. In the same case, there are those who work in “gondola, shelf or section in self-service store.”
The domestic workers and the newspaper personas They only entered this list in December 2020. The Council of Representatives of Conasami approved that the 2021 salary for domestic employees would be 182.52 pesos per day, despite the fact that they asked for an amount of 250 pesos. For those who work in the fields, the council set them a salary of 160.59 pesos, although they demanded 300.
In 2022 the SMP for domestic workers will be 187.92 pesos per day and that of agricultural day laborers, of 195.43 pesos per day. “We understand that there are demands to further raise their rank,” Luis Munguía Corella, president of Conasami, said yesterday in a virtual conference. Every time he has spoken with representatives of these two sectors, “I remind them that the number that we set is a minimum floor. It is not a tabulator, it is not what the average worker has to earn ”.
Closer and closer to the general salary
“Many workers need to have a minimum negotiation floor, and the main objective of what professional salaries for an occupation or profession is to give a worker the ability to negotiate something upward. It is a minimum floor that is projected in Conasami, but they can have a higher salary ”, insisted Munguía.
However, “there is a great difference in terms of the participation of professional salaries depending on the participation in question” and that is worrying, according to research professor Roberto Gutiérrez. The minimum remuneration in the brickwork it separates only 15% from the general minimum wage, but the minimum pay for chambermaids and chambermaids is only 2% above, he points out. Other examples are:
- Cashier at cash register, 4% more than SMG
- Shoe shop assistant, 5% more than SMG
- Parking driver, 8% more than the SMG
“It seems that over time this difference between the professional minimum wage and the general has been reduced, and it is logical to think that some of these professions and trades should be removed from the list, “he says. This group of remunerations, which groups different activities, must be updated with the jobs that have been created with technological development, driven by the covid-19 pandemic, points out the doctor in Social Studies, Social Economy Line.
In the Free Zone of the Northern Border, the minimum wages for those on this list will also be higher. Except reporters and reporters for the daily press, which, with 387.09 pesos a day, has the highest minimum wage, for the rest of the occupations and trades the minimum payment will be 260.34 pesos.
Some of the 61 activities included in the list are:
- Clerk in drugstores, pharmacies and drugstore
- Cantinero / a
- Carpenter
- Cook in restaurants, inns and other food preparation and sale establishments
- Seamstress in making clothes in workshops, factories or at home
- Hairdresser and beauty cultivator
- Sastre
- Shoemaker
Targeted inspections will begin
Luis Munguía announced that in February of next year Conasami will start a series of operatives in different companies to corroborate that those who pay a minimum wage per day are receiving the new figure.
Based on the information from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), they will know who has been registered with the minimum wage and, therefore, those people must be earning 172 pesos a day and not 141 pesos. The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) will make available means of complaint, advancement.
“It is not possible for a company to register a worker with the IMSS and pay him less than minimum salary“, said. However, in the informal sector it will be difficult to detect it. He recalled that this area is divided into different sectors, from itinerant or self-employed workers, to people who work for a company that, to avoid paying the employer’s fee, does not register them with the institute.
It also reported that the increase in SMG benefits 6.3 million people, that is, 30% of those who are listed on the IMSS. Meanwhile, for companies with more than 1,000 workers, the labor cost of this adjustment will be 1.3%, for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), 3 percent.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx