Senate unanimously passes bill to double paid vacation for Mexican workers

Workers currently get six days of paid vacation after a year on the job

Published November 3, 2022

On Thursday, the Senate unanimously approved a bill that modifies federal labor law to double annual leave for workers. For new employees, that would mean an increase from six to 12 days of annual paid leave after the first year of employment.

Entitled “Vacaciones Dignas Ya” (Decent Holidays Now), the bill also grants workers two days per subsequent year of service up to 20 days and, from the sixth year onward, paid leave would increase by two days for every five years of service until reaching the maximum statutory entitlement of 32 days.

The president of the Labor and Social Welfare Commission, Senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia of the Morena party, explained that the bill seeks to guarantee more time off for rest and recreation. “Work is one of the many components of a full life. In the same way, we need free time for our personal development,” he said.

The current legislation has not been amended in 52 years, placing Mexico as one of the world economies with the shortest initial annual leave. According to data from the World Policy Analysis Center, this is only comparable with countries like Brunei, Malaysia, Uganda, the Philippines and Thailand. It is also way below the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) recommendation of at least 18 workdays based on a statutory six-day workweek.

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