In our first post in this series, we discussed what constitutes an employment relationship under Mexico’s employment laws, the types of employees you can hire, and the importance of having a written employment agreement with your Mexican employees. We also described the basic working conditions your employment agreements must contain.

In this post we will discuss two issues to be mindful of when negotiating Mexican employee working conditions: working hours and compensation.

Working Hours

In Mexico, a working day is divided into the day shift (6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.), the night shift (8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.), and mixed shift (comprising part of the day and night shifts, the latter of which shall not exceed 3 hours). An employer can agree with its employees on the duration of the working day within the shifts and divide the working hours freely. However, there are certain hourly parameters about which employers must be mindful, including the following:

• Employers are prohibited from having their employees exceed Mexico’s statutory working day maximums: eight hours for a day shift, seven hours for a night shift, and seven and a half hours for a mixed shift.
• Employees must be given a minimum thirty-minute break during their working day to eat/rest, and if the employee cannot leave the work premises during this break, their time spent on break is computed towards their working day/night.

Wages and Bonuses

Mexico’s Federal Labor Law prohibits withholding or reducing wages...

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