MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s president said on Tuesday a key priority next year will be to improve public sector salaries, as the country gears up for the next presidential election in June 2024.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a regular press conference one of three priorities was to “improve the salary and benefits of workers, particularly state workers”. Another was to boost his government’s welfare programs, he said.
Lopez Obrador has been working to consolidate his power so he can pave the way for a successor in 2024. Under Mexican law, presidents may only serve a single six-year term.
Teachers and education workers would have guaranteed salary floors of 16,000 pesos ($917.54) a month, the president said.
Pensions would also be looked at, Lopez Obrador said.
Mexico has many hundreds of thousands of workers affiliated to the country’s main education sector union.
($1 = 17.4380 Mexican pesos)
(Reporting by Dave Graham and Kylie Madry)
