More Money (But Just a Bit) for Those Who Most Need It

Mexico's minimum wage is on its way up, jumping about 5 percent to between 54 and 57 pesos per day, depending on the region. That's just over $4 for an entire workday for the poorest earners in the formal economy, or one eighteenth of what one would earn during a ten-hour minimum-wage workday in the US.

People often describe Mexico as being one quarter or one fifth as rich as the US, based on earnings per capita. That's a somewhat deceptive stat. The rich in Mexico earn more than a quarter of what their American counterparts do, and I'd say the upper middle class typically does as well. But the poorest earn much less than that fraction.