Mexico’s Senate supports a 40-hour workweek in a preliminary vote

Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday approved a presidential proposal to cut the legal workweek from 48 hours to 40, overcoming opposition from unions and other parties with a revised version of an earlier reform initiative.

The initiative received unanimous approval in general terms with 121 votes and is now set to proceed to the lower house of Congress for final debate.

In December, after extensive discussions between Congress and the private sector, President Claudia Sheinbaum officially presented a bill aimed at the gradual implementation of the 40-hour workweek.

The proposal seeks to decrease the workweek by two hours annually until 2030 for approximately 13.4 million workers.

Opposition lawmakers and union leaders have described it as a diluted proposal, contending that it contains loopholes that would fail to significantly lessen weekly workloads.

Should the bill be approved, the reform is set to commence on May 1st, with the initial two-hour reduction scheduled for January 2027.

Mexico tops the rankings in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the longest working hours, averaging 2,226 hours per person each year. It possesses the lowest labor productivity and the lowest wages among the 38 member states.