Mexico to Improve Women’s Labor Rights

The World Bank (WB) revealed that just 76 percent of women enjoy equal rights with men. This inequality shows the inability of countries to lawfully guarantee men and women to have the same labor rights. WB stresses that the pandemic only exacerbated these inequalities, setting back previous advances and overall global development.

The report highlights the eight most affected areas by gender inequality between September 2019 and October 2020:

• Mobility and freedom of movement
• Workplace and the laws affecting women’s decisions to work
• Laws and regulations affecting women’s wages
• Marriage and the legal constraints related to marriage
• Parenthood and the laws affecting women’s work opportunities after having children
• Entrepreneurship and the constraints on women starting and running businesses
• Gender differences in property and inheritance
• Laws affecting women’s pension funds

Mexico’s overall rating on WB’s report was of 88.8. In general, Mexico has improved this scenario, as in 2020, the country was on the 65th position and this year it ranked 45th, mostly due to an improvement in the country’s labor rights.

COVID-19 has largely affected sectors in which the share of female employment is high. In Mexico, lockdowns also derived in an increase in house violence against women. According to the report, governments have acted to mitigate such effects, introducing services dedicated to protecting women from violence. However, women’s work has also been affected since schools have closed, which represents an impediment for them to either go out or work from home.

Less than a quarter of all economies surveyed in the report legally guaranteed employed parents any time off for childcare before the pandemic. Since then, in light of school closures, nearly an additional 40 economies around the world have introduced leave or benefit policies to help parents with childcare. Even so, these measures are likely insufficient to address the challenges many working mothers already face.

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Social Media Drives Job Hunting Amid the Pandemic

Social media has been a key channel for job providers and applicants to connect. According to the study Internet Job Search in Mexico 2020, social media searches went from 2 percent to 54 percent in a single year. LinkedIn and Facebook are the two leading platforms to look for a job and the report states that social media has outnumbered talent attraction over specific job platforms such as CompuTrabajo or Indeed.

Formalizing Employment

The UK Supreme Court ruled that Uber drivers should be considered "workers" and not self-employed citizens. Therefore, they are entitled to paid vacation and minimum wage.

In Mexico, workers from the sister app from Uber, Uber Eats, earn approximately MX$40 per hour (US$1.92), according to ILO. Meanwhile, ride-hailing and food delivery workers in Mexico work up to 65 hours a week, meaning 10.8 hours a day (considering a day off).