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Mexico Considers the 40-Hour Workweek (axios.com) 72

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Mexico is debating shortening its workweek from 48 hours to 40, but not everyone is on board. The Mexican bill made it out of committee last week, and it likely has the votes to pass when the legislative session restarts in September. In Mexico, cutting the workweek from the current 48 hours would give workers an extra day off per week. More than 40% of Mexicans (PDF) work six days a week, according to the national statistics institute.

"We want workers here to work to live, not live to work," Mexican Congress Member Susana Prieto Terrazas, who introduced the proposal, told Noticias Telemundo this week. "A lot of people work 10 or 12 hours daily and on top of that they take up to four hours going to work and back home That's not life," she added. Prieto Terrazas dismissed concerns about the law's possible immediate application, saying companies have months to become familiar with the draft and make preparations before the congressional vote.
The bill comes as other countries push to adopt a four-day workweek. "The vast majority of companies taking part in the world's largest trial of a four-day week have opted to continue with the new working pattern, in a result hailed as evidence that it could work across the UK economy," reported The Guardian in March of this year.

"Of the 61 companies that entered the six-month trial, 56 have extended the four-day week, including 18 who have made it permanent."
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Mexico Considers the 40-Hour Workweek

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  • by haruchai ( 17472 ) on Thursday May 04, 2023 @11:39PM (#63498380)

    Are they all at the border clamoring to work for below minimum wage?

    • They're taking our jobs. /s.
      • They probably are not taking your job. It's a shame you don't care about the lower skilled workers.

    • by fermion ( 181285 )
      Or above minimum wage they would earn in Mexico.

      Doing work that needs to be done. Even Trump hires foreign workers. Even Trump imported his wife.

      • by haruchai ( 17472 )

        That's no reason to underpay them. So many people talk about the merit of hard work but are only too ready to treat those who do work hard like animals

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday May 05, 2023 @12:06AM (#63498398)
    To replace China because China has emptied out its surplus population and so wages are climbing. If you're a toy collector you're already feeling this in the form of basic figures selling for $15 and deluxe figures selling for up to 25 to $30.

    I suspect what's going to happen here is that this will pass and be applied to Mexican citizens but that Mexico will welcome the refugees coming up from South America but look the other way when labor law isn't properly applied to them in the same way that America does to Mexican immigrants. This is overall still better and it's going to have serious political implications for America because the flow of refugees over the border is basically going to stop as Mexico absorbs them for their burgeoning industries.

    The only thing I'm not sure is how much automation is going to affect that. Automation is getting so cheap but it's Superior to anything short of slave labor.
    • In fact, China is investing in Mexican manufacturing today. Big money flowing in.
    • I suspect what's going to happen here is that this will pass and be applied to Mexican citizens but that Mexico will welcome the refugees coming up from South America

      As long as they keep them there.

      We're about full here in the US.

  • They are changing the child labour laws so that kids can work twenty-nine hours a day down at mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • They are changing the child labour laws so that kids can work twenty-nine hours a day down at mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work

      Of course they are. When you kick the immigrants out you find you have no one left to do the jobs you don't want to do. So you give them to people who can't complain.

      • There's something fundamentally Marie Antoinette about having laws on the books that prevent productive work from being done in exchange for money.

        *Your* kids might be too good for hard work, but that should have no bearing on other people.

        • I've always considered you a bit of a RightwingNutjob but the reason we don't put kids to work is because it is fundamentally *NOT* productive to do so as it stunts a whole world of future possibilities.

          Send your kids to school. Work yourself. Leave the child labour to the 1830s. Just kidding that's when it started being abolished.

  • by lsllll ( 830002 ) on Friday May 05, 2023 @01:35AM (#63498452)
    Hector: Gentlemen, we do not stop till nightfall.
    Jose: What about Siesta?
    Raul: You've already had it.
    Jose: We've had one, yes. What about second Siesta?
    Raul: Don't think he knows about second Siesta, Amigo.
  • by necronom426 ( 755113 ) on Friday May 05, 2023 @03:21AM (#63498564)

    When I read the title I though "What? You have to work 40 hours a week? That's unfair", thinking it was going up. I've never worked that long as a standard working week. It's always been between 37 and 38, though I'm in England.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by sonlas ( 10282912 )

      Well, countries like ours, where we can live well with 37-38 hours of work per week, can only get by because we rely on:
      - countries with cheap labor and lax social laws
      - countries with lax environmental regulations
      - or even better, countries with a combination of both

      Maybe you won't agree, but I believe this is a form of modern slavery, but in a way that we can justify intellectually so that is cognitively acceptable. And we can then forget about it while we go on with our daily hobbies.

      • by Mal-2 ( 675116 )

        You're forgetting another big cost driver: pensions. Countries (like Russia) where the workers die around or shortly after retirement age will also have lower costs in that department, although you risk having the entire workforce mobilized and sent to serve as "reconnaissance by fire" patrols.

      • Exactly. And 1st world countries are counting on immigration to fill in the blanks and keep the machine grinding, but forget that those immigrants have to come from somewhere. Every doctor that immigrates to Canada is one less doctor in his country's hospital.
        Skilled, educated or simply motivated workers that immigrate are lost to their original country and that means that they will hold unto them even more. Either politically or financially.

        In other words, as 3rd world countries look to develop and improve

      • > Well, countries like ours, where we can live well with 37-38 hours of work per week, can only get by because we rely on [cheap labor, lax social laws, and/or lax environmental regulations]

        How do you figure? The difference between 40 hours and 37-38 hours is only about 6%. Even if we assume a proportional drop in productivity (which likely underestimate the productivity of a 37-38 hour work week), that's maybe 2-3 years of average economic growth. That's hardly going to make the difference between needi

        • It's also worth noting that standardizing on 8 hours per day dates back to the 1920s or earlier for many countries, with some industries doing it in the 1800s. This is well into the times when these countries had low wages, lax labor laws, and lax environmental laws.

          One famous example is Henry Ford reducing work hours to 5 days, 40 hours a week in 1926. This actually *increased* productivity, and other automobile makers ended up following the example. Given the less than ideal treatment of workers and the e

        • How do you figure? The difference between 40 hours and 37-38 hours is only about 6%.

          They are going from 48 hours to 40 hours. The difference between 48 hours and 37-38 hours is basically one full workday.

          Anyway, I was more referring to manual work (mining, manufacturing, etc...) where you don't get to be "more" productive because you work only 37 hours a week. Don't misunderstand me: I am working 35 hours a week myself, with good income. This is great, I get to enjoy life, spend time with my family, work as volunteer in associations... I am just a realist, and know that I can do that becau

          • > > How do you figure? The difference between 40 hours and 37-38 hours is only about 6%.

            > They are going from 48 hours to 40 hours. The difference between 48 hours and 37-38 hours is basically one full workday.

            Ah, your mention of 37-38 hours made me think you were talking about England having that vs. 40 hours, but I understand now you were making an argument about going from 48 down to 37-38. That's indeed a much bigger step, although the caveat that this doesn't necessarily imply a proportional l

      • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Except that obviously isn't true. For decades a single income family was viable, and until the mid 60s our border was basically closed, beyond that we actively rounded up the illegals that were here and shipped them home!

        The problem is globalism, and team america world police.

        Stop illegal immigration, stop fighting foreign wars, stop foreign aide, rely on domestic energy production (regardless of carbon), implement export controls on domestic energy, hike import tariffs how ever much is required until ameri

    • It's always been between 37 and 38, though I'm in England.

      35 hour week, 9 day fortnight here in Australia. Sorry, just had to say.

    • It's only 37.5 hours in the UK because half-hour lunch breaks are often unpaid, though the mandated rest breaks are paid. Take five of those and you get a 40 hour week.

      I imagine the situation is different because of siesta, as with Spain; on paper the working day appears longer, but people aren't necessarily working more hours.

      • by skam240 ( 789197 )

        It's only 37.5 hours in the UK because half-hour lunch breaks are often unpaid...

        Lunch breaks are usually unpaid in the US as well.

  • 7.6hrs a day or 38.5 is the normal Australian white collar work week, tradies work 8.5 hour days over 9 days and have the 10th day off as a Rostered Day Off. Obviously there is a lot of variation and different standards and awards that negotiates differences per industry Given Australia pioneered the 8 hour work day, the idea that anyone would work 48 hours as a standard is just nuts We already know people become far less productive as the hours increase. Time to wise up and catch up with the times.
    • Most politicians measure "productivity" as the amount of work that can be done in a given time, with all time off and vacation time counting as wasted time with no value. So for them someone producing 10 units in a 60h week is more "productive" than someone producing only 9 in a 35h week.

    • 7 hour, 36 mninute work days are normal in Australia?

Air pollution is really making us pay through the nose.

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