For all workers in Mexico, the Christmas bonus is one of the employment benefits to which each one is entitled after having done work for an employer. However, the legislation on this subject has not been modified for more than 50 years.
Now, an initiative presented by Morena would seek that workers receive double economic compensation in consideration of the days worked.
On August 9, Deputy Manuel de Jesús Baldenebro Arredondo proposed a reform project to “increase the Christmas bonus for private sector workers from 15 to 30 days, twice the legal minimum.” The legislator delivered to the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union the “initiative with a draft decree that reforms the first paragraph of article 87 of the Federal Labor Law.”
“The Christmas bonus is a benefit that has not been updated in more than 50 years of validity (…), so it is fair and necessary that the base that drives the economy of this country, the workers, see tangible benefits,” said the also president of the Labor and Social Welfare Commission.
This says article 87 of the Federal Labor Law
Currently, article 87 of the Federal Labor Law establishes that workers will be entitled to an annual bonus equivalent to at least 15 days of salary.
The Christmas bonus arose as a mandatory benefit in the law in 1970. The modification seeks to increase the days from 15 to 30.
“There is a large wage difference in the average wages received for this benefit between workers in the private sector (section A) and workers at the service of the State (section B), which reflects the discrimination and inequalities that exist between the norms of work”, detailed the legislator.
However, it is not the first time that an initiative to increase the Christmas bonus has been presented. In February of this year, senators from the Green Party presented an identical initiative.
The Christmas bonus, they explained, is a right that is constituted as a thank you for the provision of a service during a working year, which must be put into perspective with the population that works under a minimum wage, which is barely enough to cover the basic basket.
Likewise, in December 2021, the deputy Reynel Rodríguez Muñoz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) presented an initiative where an increase of 40 days was contemplated.
“Increase the annual bonus from 20 days to 40 days, increasing one more day for each subsequent year of service, from the third year of seniority.” But the project was scrapped in April 2022.
Deputy Alfredo Aurelio González Cruz, from Morena, delivered an initiative to increase salary days to 40 in March 2022. The status on the Chamber of Deputies page indicates that it is pending.
In April 2023, legislator Ana Laura Bernal Camarena, from the Labor Party (PT), also delivered a project to increase the days of the Christmas bonus to 30, which is pending.
Source: Medio Tiempo
