Women Face Persistent Labor Gaps in Mexico: INEGI

Mexico continues to face structural gender gaps in the labor market. Data from INEGI shows women participate less in the workforce, earn lower incomes and experience higher levels of informality than men despite rising education levels. INEGI data shows:

• Women represent 53.1% of Mexico’s population aged 15+, but their labor participation is 45.7%, compared with 75.1% for men.

• 46.7% of employed women earn up to one minimum wage, and 5.6% receive no income from their work.

• 55.9% of employed women work in informal employment, reflecting persistent structural gaps in Mexico’s labor market.

Mexico continues to face structural gaps in women’s participation in the labor market, with lower participation rates, lower incomes and higher levels of informality compared with men, according to new data released by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

The statistical report, based on the 2025 National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE), provides an overview of women’s sociodemographic and labor conditions in Mexico. The findings highlight persistent disparities in access to employment, earnings and labor opportunities.

As of the 3Q25, Mexico’s population aged 15 and older reached 103.1 million people. Women represented 53.1% of this group, compared with 46.9% men. Despite being the majority of the adult population, women continue to participate in the labor market at significantly lower levels.

INEGI reported that women’s labor force participation rate stood at 45.7%, while men’s reached 75.1%, resulting in a gender gap of nearly 30 percentage points. This gap reflects long-standing differences in economic participation between men and women in Mexico.

Employment and Regional Disparities

Among those who were economically active, employment levels were similar between genders. Approximately 97.0% of women in the labor force were employed, compared with 97.2% of men. Unemployment rates were therefore relatively close, at 3.0% for women and 2.8% for men. However, these figures mask broader structural disparities affecting women’s quality of employment and access to opportunities.

Regional differences in women’s participation also remain significant across the country. The states with the highest female economic participation rates were Colima, where 56.6% of women aged 15 and older were economically active, followed by Baja California Sur at 55.8% and Mexico City at 54.8%.

At the other end of the spectrum, southern and southeastern states reported the lowest levels of female participation. Chiapas recorded a participation rate of 32.5%, Veracruz 36.3% and Zacatecas 40.7%, illustrating the uneven integration of women into regional labor markets.

Income and Labor Informality

Income levels further illustrate gender disparities in the workforce. According to the survey, 46.7% of employed women earned up to one minimum wage, compared with 34.0% of men in the same income bracket. In addition, 5.6% of women reported receiving no income from their work, slightly higher than the 4.8% reported among men.

Women were also less represented in higher income brackets. Only a small proportion reported earning more than three or five minimum wages, suggesting that women remain concentrated in lower-paying jobs.

The data also shows differences in employment conditions. Of the 24.3 million women who were employed in Mexico’s labor market, 55.9% worked in informal employment. Informality includes economic activities carried out in businesses that are not formally registered and often lack formal accounting, labor protections or social security coverage.

Within this segment, more than half of employed women worked as subordinate and paid workers, while 35.4% were self-employed. Another 9.4% reported working without remuneration, more than double the proportion among men, which stood at 4.5%. Meanwhile, only 3.5% of women reported being employers, compared with 6.7% of men.

Underemployment and Education

Subemployment is another indicator of labor market challenges. The rate of subemployment refers to workers who have a job but are willing and available to work more hours. Among workers with higher education levels, women showed slightly higher levels of subemployment than men. 

For example, 39.7% of women with upper secondary or higher education who were subemployed reported wanting to work more hours, compared with 36.8% of men with similar educational backgrounds. These findings suggest that higher educational attainment does not necessarily translate into better employment opportunities for women.

At the same time, women’s educational levels have improved significantly over the past decade. Between 2015 and 2025, the proportion of women aged 15 and older with upper secondary or higher education increased from 27.2% to 38.3%. During the same period, the proportion of women with incomplete primary education declined from 17.0% to 11.7%.

Despite these improvements in educational attainment, structural barriers continue to limit women’s integration into the labor market.

Global Context and Legal Frameworks

INEGI also highlighted the concept of the “labor gap,” which measures the share of people who are unemployed, underemployed, or available to work but not actively seeking employment. In 3Q25, the labor gap among women reached 20.8%, compared with 14.3% among men.

The difference is largely explained by the proportion of women who are available to work but are not actively searching for employment. This group represented 12.1% of women aged 15 and older, compared with 4.8% of men.

Recently, a World Bank report found that fewer than 5% of women live in economies that provide close to full legal equality, and no country has secured all the legal rights required for women’s full economic participation. These results underscore persistent structural barriers that continue to limit growth and workforce inclusion.

On average, economies score 67 out of 100 on the index measuring laws that support women’s economic equality. However, the average score drops to 53 when enforcement of those laws is assessed. When evaluating the adequacy of systems required to implement rights, including courts and regulatory bodies, the score falls further to 47.

According to data from the report, Mexico scores 87.50 out of 100 in the “Work” indicator, which assesses legal frameworks affecting women’s participation in the labor market. The category evaluates issues such as restrictions on employment, protections against discrimination and sexual harassment, and women’s ability to work in the same roles as men.