Salaries and wages in the automotive industry in Mexico in 2003 and 2008: Aguascalientes, Estado de Mexico, Puebla, Chihuahua and Coahuila de Zaragoza

Abstract:

Abstract of article “Salaries and wages in the automotive industry in Mexico in 2003 and 2008: Aguascalientes, Estado de Mexico, Puebla, Chihuahua and Coahuila de Zaragoza.”

The objective of this work is to demonstrate that in the average salaries per day and per hour in the automotive industry installed in Mexico that are determined with the data given by the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia (INEGI) (National Institute of Statistics and Geography), when they are broken down between assembly factories and auto part factories, as well as by workers and administration employees, enormous disparities are found within each sector. To complete the work, besides the day and the hourly wages, we used the number of minimum salaries for each sector (assembly or auto parts), state of the republic and by occupational classification (administrative employees and workers) were used. The results found demonstrate that the general average of 4.5 minimum salaries per worker of this industry, when divided by employees of assembly and of auto parts, 8.9 was obtained for the first and 4.1 for the latter; when broken down between administrative employees and workers, in the assembly a 9.7 and 3.5 respectively was obtained; in auto parts 4.6 and 1.5. By state of the republic, assembly in Puebla, meaning VW, paid in 2003 10.7 minimum salaries to administrative employees and 4 to workers, which was the highest in the country. In the auto part factories, 1.6 times was paid to workers. Chihuahua and Coahuila are the states in which the lowest salaries were paid: 1.6 and 1.2 minimum salaries to workers in auto parts respectively.
In this study salaries that were paid in 2003 and 2008 were compared, finding that the increment in salaries was less than all the other indicators, highlighting the difference with the value of production of the automotive industry in such years that grew 49% and the salaries only 18%. This fact is embarrassing considering that this is an industry that is 100% foreign that boasts of remunerative salaries.
The article also demonstrates the strong reduction of workers in factories in Chihuahua with less than 51 thousand workers in this period and Coahuila with less than 11 thousand, which questions if this data has any relation to the increase violence and drug trafficking in this part of the country.
Lastly, the data obtained by official statistics was compared to the data of the survey we conducted in the year 2008, finding strong differences. The information about the salaries given by the companies in the surveys is much higher, double or triple of what the data from INEGI says.