The Senate has unanimously approved draft amendments to the Federal Labor Law (Ley Federal del Trabajo – LFT) to require that “older workers” make up at least 5% of the workforce in companies with 20 or more employees. The legislation is now with the lower house (the Chamber of Deputies).
Employers should monitor the progress of the legislation and review the demographics of their workforce. The bill was originally proposed in 2021 (with a 2% quota), so it has long been under consideration. The employment rate for persons in Mexico age 55 to 64 was 56.6% as of the fourth quarter of 2022; while not far from the corresponding OECD average of 63.3%, many workers in Mexico are engaged in informal employment and are not captured by the official labor market data. According to the bill’s sponsors, the national statistics agency (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía – INEGI) estimates that seven out of 10 older workers are informally employed. People age 60 and above represent 19.5% of the total population age 20 and over (INEGI 2020 data). The mandate, if approved, would be the first of its kind among OECD nations. Given the speed with which many nations are aging, it may not be the last.