What Can Employers in Mexico Expect on Labor and Employment Matters in President Sheinbaum’s Administration?

Quick Hits

• Claudia Sheinbaum—the first woman to be elected president of Mexico—will begin her term of office on October 1, 2024.
• President-elect Sheinbaum has appointed Marath Baruch Bolaños Lopez to be Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare and a member of her cabinet.
• President-elect Sheinbaum’s labor and employment agenda includes, among other things, proposals to increase minimum wage rates and amend the Federal Labor Law to classify delivery app workers as employees.

Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare

Since President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum’s election on June 2, 2024, she has been introducing the members of her future presidential cabinet, including Marath Baruch Bolaños Lopez, who is currently the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare and will continue in that role. Before taking charge of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Bolaños Lopez was Undersecretary of Employment and Work Productivity from October 2020 to June 2023.

The president-elect considered it appropriate to continue developing the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare’s policies introduced during the administration of the outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

During his time as undersecretary and secretary, Bolaños Lopez has encouraged the participation of young people in the workforce, participated in amending the Federal Labor Law’s (FLL) outsourcing provisions in 2021, participated in labor and employment–related negotiations in Mexico and abroad, and campaigned for the protection of employee rights.

Labor and Employment Agenda

On July 11, 2024, President-elect Sheinbaum announced that she plans to focus on increasing minimum wage rates and an FLL amendment that would classify delivery app workers as employees. A bill introduced during the final congressional ordinary session of 2023 would have treated app-based couriers as employees and therefore entitled to salary-based social security rights and tip distributions.

When President-elect Sheinbaum was asked about a proposal to amend the FLL to reduce the maximum standard workweek by eight hours to forty hours, she said that this was not a priority and that the amendment must be discussed with employers to fulfill the interests of all parties. Even though President-elect Sheinbaum does not consider the workweek amendment a priority, it is important to consider that Congress will convene its next congressional ordinary session on September 1, 2024, and it could pass an amendment to reclassify delivery app workers before President Obrador leaves office on October 1, 2024. However, Congress may decide to defer action on the proposed amendment until the incoming administration takes office.

Ogletree Deakins’ Mexico City office will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Cross-Border blog as additional information becomes available.

Pietro Straulino-Rodríguez is the managing partner of the Mexico City office of Ogletree Deakins.

Natalia Merino Moreno is an associate in the Mexico City office of Ogletree Deakins.

María José Bladinieres is a law clerk in the Mexico City office of Ogletree Deakins.

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