This article originally appeared in the December 16, 2025 edition of El Universal.
Editor’s note: I’m not normally in the habit of re-publishing something from El Universal*, a corporate, right wing newspaper which approaches this issue by suggesting tax credits for corporations, already operating in extremely favourable conditions with very low wages, as a solution to this issue; but the figures are important.*
This Christmas, almost 14 million Mexicans will be without their Christmas bonus, even though it is a right established since 1970 in the Federal Labor Law (LFT).
By surveying more than 150,000 homes distributed throughout the country, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) counted 40.8 million subordinate and paid workers between July and September of last year.
Of this amount, 33.6% or 13.7 million lacked a Christmas bonus, paid vacation, or profit sharing.
It is the highest figure in a year and, to put it in perspective, it is equivalent to the combined population of Mexico City, Querétaro and Morelos. The 13.7 million without a Christmas bonus represent 22.3% of the Economically Active Population (EAP).
Humberto Calzada , chief economist for Rankia Latin America, explained that most workers without benefits operate in the informal sector, and that is why employers evade this obligation.
From their point of view, working conditions and the scarcity of formal job creation force Mexicans to seek informal options in order to have a source of income .
“Faced with precarious employment, workers are willing to sacrifice social benefits in order to have a better salary,” he said in an interview with El Universal.
Households with lower labor income lack the capacity to save resources and are the first to spend their Christmas bonus; they are even forced to acquire loans, explained the professor of Economics at UNAM .
“It is very difficult for informal employment to end in Mexico, because many times an informal worker has a higher income than a professional who operates in the formal sector,” he noted.
In his opinion, reducing informality requires more productive public and private investment. “Tax incentives are urgently needed to encourage companies to invest and foster economic growth,” he commented.
State of Mexico Leads
The largest number of employees who will not receive a Christmas bonus work in the State of Mexico , with 2.2 million. Puebla and Veracruz follow, with one million each, according to the results of the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE) by the institute headed by Graciela Márquez.
Mexico City and Michoacán continue to be affected, both with 0.8 million employees without access to this benefit, whose payment deadline is December 20 and which is prohibited from being paid in kind.
Of the 13.7 million workers without access to a Christmas bonus, 5.3 million are between 15 and 29 years old, that is, they belong to the so-called Generation Z or Centennial, while 5.2 million are in the 30 to 49 age range, and the rest are over 50 years old.
Clemente Ruiz Durán, a researcher at the Postgraduate Program in Economics at UNAM, pointed out that most young people are employed on a temporary basis, so employers do not carry out the formalization process.
The Federal Labor Defense Attorney’s Office explains that workers have the right to receive a Christmas bonus equivalent to at least 15 days of salary.
Workers who have not completed one year of service, regardless of whether they are working or not on the date of settlement of the Christmas bonus, must receive the proportional part of it, according to the time worked, whatever it may be.
The Christmas bonus payment is due to workers, whether they are base-level, trust-based, permanent, unionized, for a specific project or time, seasonal, for an indefinite period subject to probation or subject to initial training, among others who are governed by the LFT.
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Christmas Without a Bonus for 13.7 Million Workers
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Mexico’s Scrooge-like employers evade their legal obligation because most employees are informal workers.
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A Bosses’ Trap?
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Mexico’s much-touted 40 hour workweek reform does not bring about a real reduction in the working day; on the contrary, it will become a more effective tool of exploitation and is an initiative designed for the benefit of employers and against the dignity of workers.
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