EDOMEX Bill Targets Gender Pay Gap, Unpaid Work

The State of Mexico (EDOMEX) has introduced a bill to reform the state’s Equal Treatment and Opportunities Law to define and reduce the gender pay gap, mandate action by public and private employers and promote equal distribution of unpaid domestic work, amid data showing persistent income disparities and high female informality rates.

Legislator María del Carmen de la Rosa presented the initiative before the State of Mexico Congress to amend the Law on Equal Treatment and Opportunities between Women and Men. The proposal would formally define the gender pay gap as the difference in remuneration between women and men for reasons of gender in work of equal value.

“Let working women not say that this Congress was indifferent, because women are not asking for privileges, we demand justice. We want shared responsibility at home, we want fair wages, but we want real equality. It is time to say clearly that women’s work has value and it has equal value. Colleagues, transformation is also about wages,” the legislator said during the session.

The bill would modify Article 7 of the state law to include as objectives the eradication of the gender pay gap and the promotion of equal sharing of unpaid domestic work. It also proposes changes to Article 30 to require state and municipal authorities, as well as employers, to implement measures to eliminate workplace discrimination and wage disparities across the public, private and social sectors.

According to de la Rosa, men's average quarterly monetary income accounts for MX$36,047 (US$2,098.6), while women’s is MX$23,714, which represents a 34.2% difference. In 2024, households headed by women reported incomes 12.4% lower than those headed by men, based on the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey by INEGI. However, there have been some mild advances. In 2023, men’s wages were 15% higher than those of women registered with the Mexican Social Security Institute, narrowing from a 24% gap in 2000 and 17% in 2010, reported the organism. 

At the state level, at least 3,225 million women are part of the labor force in the State of Mexico, yet many receive wages that do not reach the legal minimum, according to the state Women’s Ministry. Women in formal employment earn between MX$8,000 and MX$9,000 per month, while those in the informal sector earn between MX$3,000 and MX$4,000 per month.

At the national scale, 56.2% of the employed population works in the informal sector. The rate is higher for women, at 57.6%, compared with 55.3% for men. Nearly 12.7 million women work without access to social security or a recognized employment relationship.

The proposal notes that women also perform a significant share of unpaid domestic and care work. In 2023, the annual economic value of unpaid domestic and care work performed by women was estimated at MX$86,971, compared with MX$36,471 for men.

The initiative aligns with policies promoted by President Claudia Sheinbaum and reforms advanced in the state by Gov. Delfina Gómez Álvarez under the State of Mexico Development Plan 2023-2029. The bill was referred to the legislative board, chaired by Deputy Martha Azucena Camacho Reynoso, for committee analysis before discussion in the plenary.