Analysis of the Income Gap and Working Poverty in Mexico
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), in its first official report on working poverty, reveals a substantial economic disparity between the formal and informal employed population in Mexico. The data, corresponding to the second quarter of 2025, detail that the average monthly labor income of a formal worker was 10,821 pesos. In contrast, the average remuneration for an employee in the informal economy was 5,257 pesos. This figure represents exactly 48.6% of formal income, highlighting a profound inequality in the country’s remuneration structure.
Although both sectors experienced positive annual growth in their real perceptions, the progress was marginal. The income of the formal sector registered an increase of 2.9%, while that of the informal sector increased by 2.7%. This parallel growth, although positive, does not contribute to closing the percentage gap between both groups, maintaining the relative economic disadvantage of informal workers.
Evolution of In-Work Poverty and Regional Disparities
The concept of working poverty refers to the condition in which the per capita labor income of a household is insufficient to acquire the basic food basket. At the national level, this indicator showed a worrying stagnation, going from 35.0% in the second quarter of 2024 to 35.1% in the same period of 2025. This slight increase of 0.1 percentage points hides opposite trends when disaggregating the data by geographic area.
The analysis by area reveals a critical situation in rural areas, where the incidence of working poverty increased by 1.5 percentage points, climbing from 47.6% to 49.1%. This means that practically one in every two Mexicans in rural communities does not generate enough income through their work to cover their basic food needs. On the contrary, in urban areas a slight improvement was observed, with a minimum reduction from 30.9% to 30.8%.
The state perspective offers a heterogeneous panorama. In 21 of the 32 states an increase in real labor income per capita was recorded. The greatest advances were concentrated in three states: Quintana Roo led with an impressive growth of 12.1%, followed by Yucatán with 9.8% and Aguascalientes with 9.5%. At the opposite extreme, the largest falls seriously affected San Luis Potosí, which suffered a contraction of 15.0%, the State of Mexico with a decrease of 9.0% and Guerrero with a decrease of 7.2%.
Wage Mass and Gender Inequality
One of the most alarming data in the report is the contraction of the real wage bill at the national level. This economic aggregate, which represents the total sum of all labor income of employed people, decreased by 2.8% year-on-year. The value fell from 384,907 million pesos to 374,281 million pesos, indicating a reduction in the collective purchasing power of the Mexican workforce, despite individual increases in average income.
In addition to the formal-informal gap, the Inegi report highlights the persistent gender inequality in the labor market. The real average monthly labor income for employed men was established at 8,278 pesos, while for employed women it was 6,625 pesos. This difference means that women earn, on average, only 80% of the male salary, evidencing another critical dimension of economic inequality in the country.
The national average labor income for the entire employed population, integrating both sectors and genders, stood at 7,596 pesos per month during the second quarter of 2025. These findings underline the urgency of comprehensive public policies that not only encourage the formalization of employment, but also address deep regional and gender disparities, and stimulate robust growth in the wage bill that benefits the entire population. economically active population.
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