Mexico Prepares for Shorter Workweek, But Still Lags Behind

As the Netherlands posts the European Union's shortest average workweek at 31.9 hours while maintaining high productivity, Mexico begins a four-year, phased reduction from 48 to 40 hours by 2030, prompting employers to reassess shift structures, staffing costs, and productivity benchmarks ahead of the first stage in January 2027.  

Labor time reduction has become a recurring policy priority across multiple economies. Mexico is actively preparing for a four-year, gradual reduction of the workweek to 40 hours by 2030. However, the country significantly lags behind other economies. 

Netherlands workers, for example, logged an average effective workweek of 31.9 hours in 2025, the shortest in the European Union, according to Eurostat data. The Netherlands' position reflects a labor market where part-time arrangements, reduced schedules, and flexible contracts are widespread and normalized. The European Union average stood at 35.9 hours in the same period.

For Mexican employers monitoring international labor trends, the Dutch case illustrates that a shorter national average workweek does not require uniform schedule compression across the workforce. It can instead result from a diversified mix of full-time and part-time contracts distributed across sectors, a model that carries implications for how companies design staffing structures during Mexico's own transition period.

Eurostat's 2025 figures cover full-time and part-time workers between the ages of 20 and 64 in their main job. Part-time work represented 38.6% of total employment in the Netherlands in 2024. Among Dutch women, 60.5% worked part time, a proportion that helps explain why the national average sits well below the 40-hour threshold most economies use as a full-time benchmark, according to Eurostat.

Mechanics of Mexico's Reduction Schedule

Mexico's Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) established a four-year phase-in for the workweek reduction, with each stage taking effect on Jan. 1 of the corresponding year. The schedule calls for 46 hours in 2027, 44 hours in 2028, 42 hours in 2029, and 40 hours in 2030.

The stated objective is to reduce working hours without cutting wages, while giving companies time to adjust shift structures, staffing costs, and internal processes.

The gradual design responds to employer concerns about compliance timelines. Rather than a single transition date, the four-step schedule allows companies across sectors, from manufacturing to services, to redesign shift patterns incrementally rather than absorb an abrupt reduction in labor hours. 

Structural Differences Limit the Comparison's Scope

Mexico and the Netherlands operate under distinct labor market conditions. Informality levels, technology investment, shift organization, and access to flexible work arrangements all shape how a shorter workweek translates into productivity outcomes.

A shorter workweek alone does not guarantee higher output per hour. Productivity gains depend on organizational design, technology adoption, workforce training, and each sector's capacity to adapt internal processes to a reduced schedule. Several EU economies at or below 36 hours a week face this same test, where productivity outcomes trace back to organization and technology rather than the hour count alone.

For companies evaluating the Dutch model as a benchmark, the underlying enabler is not the hour count itself, but the flexibility and digitalization that allow output to hold steady, or increase, as hours decline.

What Comes Next For Mexican Employers

Companies operating in Mexico will need to begin adjusting workforce planning ahead of the first reduction, scheduled for January 2027. Human resources and operations teams face a multiyear window to redesign shift rotations, reassess overtime structures, and evaluate whether current staffing levels can sustain output under a shorter legal workweek.

The STPS has not published sector-specific guidance beyond the four-year calendar. Companies must interpret compliance requirements within their own operational contexts as each phase approaches.

The reduction will also require closer tracking of ordinary and extraordinary hours to avoid exceeding the new weekly limits once they take effect. Employers in labor-intensive sectors, including manufacturing and retail, are likely to face the most significant restructuring needs, given their reliance on extended shift schedules under the current 48-hour framework.

Mexico's reduction from 48 to 40 hours by 2030 will test whether local employers can replicate elements of that model, particularly around flexible scheduling and process automation, within a labor market that carries substantially high informality.