Mexico’s professional minimum wages for 2026: every trade, daily and monthly, in English

Your professional minimum wage, net

OccupationBricklayer (journeyman)Pharmacy counter clerkBulldozer or front-loader operatorCash register cashierBartender (drinks preparer)Rough carpenter (construction)Furniture carpenter (journeyman)Head cook in restaurants and food outletsMattress maker or repairer (journeyman)Tile and mosaic setter (journeyman)Plasterer in building constructionFootwear cutter (journeyman)Garment seamstress in workshops or factoriesGarment seamstress working from homeParking valet driverTruck driver (general freight)Van driver (general freight)Tow-truck driverDredge operatorCabinetmaker (journeyman)Electrician, installations (journeyman)Auto electrician (journeyman)Motor and generator repair electrician (journeyman)Supermarket aisle or section clerkWarehouse or storeroom keeperHardware store clerkSteam boiler stokerPetrol station attendantBlacksmith or ironworker (journeyman)Auto body repairer (journeyman)Farm labourerVehicle lubrication technicianPoultry farm handlerFarm machinery operatorWoodworking machine operator (journeyman)Auto and truck mechanic (journeyman)Footwear assembler (journeyman)Hairdresser and beauticianAuto and truck painter (journeyman)House and building painter (journeyman)Machine presser in dry cleaners and laundriesPlumber (journeyman)Electronics repair technician (journeyman)Hotel room attendantAuto parts counter clerkHousehold appliance repairer (journeyman)Daily print newspaper reporterDaily print newspaper photojournalistPastry cook or bakerHome-based tailor (journeyman)Assistant secretaryWelder (torch or electric arc)Butcher at the counterCar upholsterer (journeyman)Furniture upholsterer (journeyman)Domestic workerSocial work technicianMachine milker (dairy)Night watchmanHome appliance sales floor clerkShoe repairer (journeyman)

ZoneRest of MexicoNorthern border

Net monthly

MX$10,463

Daily minimum for the trade	MX$363.44
Above the zone’s general minimum	15.4 %
Gross monthly	MX$11,054.63

Minimum wage calculator →

Trades a foreign employer is most likely to hire

Before the full list, the trades that come up most often for international companies, hotels, restaurants and expatriate households. Amounts are for the rest of Mexico, monthly at daily × 365 ÷ 12, with the deductions payroll applies in 2026.

If you agree a monthly net figure with a worker, as many households do, you are responsible for withholding and paying the taxes on top of it. The net-to-gross calculator finds the gross salary that produces a given take-home amount.

All 61 professional minimum wages for 2026

Trade names are English renderings of the official Spanish descriptions, numbered in the order of the Official Gazette table. The percentage column compares each rate with the general minimum outside the border zone, MX$315.04 a day.

Reading the table: a narrow band and one outlier

Most professional minimums sit close to the general rate. 27 of the 61 trades are less than 10 % above it, starting with poultry farm handler at MX$316.85, only MX$1.81 a day more. The outlier is the press: daily print newspaper reporters and photojournalists have a floor of MX$705.46, roughly twice any manual trade. The next highest, social work technician, is MX$405.82.

At the border the table nearly vanishes. 59 trades take exactly the zone’s general minimum, MX$440.87, because that rate already beats all the rest-of-Mexico professional rates except the reporters’. For a maquiladora or any employer in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez or Reynosa, the practical floor for almost every role is the border general minimum, explained in the northern border minimum wage guide.

When a professional rate applies

The test is the work actually done, not the job title on the contract. Someone hired as a general «assistant» who in practice works as a journeyman carpenter is entitled to the carpenter’s minimum. Several descriptions separate the journeyman (oficial) from the helper (ayudante), and helpers are not covered by the journeyman line. Others are tied to a setting, such as cooks in restaurants and food outlets, or room attendants in hotels and other lodgings.

If a role is not listed, the floor is the general minimum wage for 2026. Collective agreements can set higher rates but not lower ones. As with the general minimum, the professional rate is daily, and the CONASAMI resolution does not allow it to be split into an hourly rate.

Net pay: the exemption does not follow you up the scale

A worker on the general minimum pays no ISR, under article 96 of the Income Tax Law, and the employer pays the employee’s IMSS share, under article 36 of the Social Security Law. Both rules apply only to the general minimum of the worker’s zone. A professional rate is higher, so ordinary payroll rules kick in: the monthly ISR tariff, the employment subsidy if monthly income is no more than MX$11,492.66, and the employee IMSS contribution.

The counter-intuitive result is that 11 of the 61 trades take home less than a worker on the general minimum, who keeps MX$9,582 a month. 56 trades still qualify for the subsidy, and the other 5 are above the subsidy limit and pay the full tariff. The simulator at the top of the page gives the net for any trade in either zone, and the IMSS calculator breaks down the employee contribution branch by branch.

Point NOVENO: the system is under review

Besides setting the rates, the December 2025 resolution states in point NOVENO that CONASAMI’s Council of Representatives will review the professional minimum wage system during 2026. It gives no amounts, no timetable and no hint of which trades might be added or dropped. Companies planning payroll for the coming year should watch the Official Gazette, but nothing on this page changes until a new resolution is published.

Mistakes employers make with these rates

• Paying the general minimum to someone whose work is a listed trade, even if the shortfall is only a few pesos a day.
• Converting to monthly with × 30 instead of × 365 ÷ 12. On the reporters’ rate that understates pay by MX$293.94 a month.
• Assuming that, being a minimum wage, it carries no deductions. Only the general minimum is exempt.
• Forgetting the statutory extras: at least 15 days of aguinaldo (the year-end bonus), paid vacation and a vacation premium of at least 25 % come on top of the professional rate. The aguinaldo calculator handles partial years.